It’s time for me to reflect on some of our top data + analytics insights from 2025! Over the past year, our experts have shared their lessons learned, best practices, project wins, and industry perspectives, and I’m excited to recap some of that content below. You can also take a look at all of our data + analytics content from the past year here. 

Top Data + Analytics Insights from 2025 

1. The Data Governance Process: Enabling Success for Data and Analytics  

Data governance is the foundation for every successful data and analytics initiative, even though its value is often overlooked. Rather than being defined by heavy documentation, effective governance is rooted in clear processes that help organizations maintain accurate data and adapt as analytics capabilities evolve. When built around practical frameworks and behaviors, data governance becomes a key enabler of speed, reliability, and long-term analytics maturity; read more in this piece by Chandler Kneer. 

Dive into data governance and its importance >>  

2. Leveraging Metric Trees for Retail Analytics 

North Star metrics, such as profit or marketing pipeline conversions, capture the core value a business delivers. Retailers looking to become more data-driven can use metric trees to trace the factors influencing these key metrics and uncover targeted actions that drive meaningful impact. This piece by Brandon Regnerus and Cecilia Williams explores how metric trees are structured and the advantages they offer for retail analytics. 

How can metric trees be leveraged in retail? >> 

3. Establishing a Data Integrity Governance Program for a Biotech Company 

The Clarkston team partnered with a biotech company to help establish a comprehensive data integrity policy aligned with current regulatory standards. The policy set clear expectations for managing, validating, and auditing data throughout its lifecycle. By implementing these guidelines, the client strengthened governance and ensured accurate, complete records. LaToya Lee Jones and Janel Firestein share more on the project in this case study.  

Read the data integrity governance program case study >>  

4. Data Storytelling and Visualization in Consumer Products: Turning Data into Action 

Data visualization and storytelling are both crucial for making data meaningful, particularly in the consumer products industry. While visualization uses charts, graphs, and dashboards to highlight trends and patterns, storytelling adds context and narrative, helping audiences connect with the data on a deeper level. In this article, Romeo Denghel explores how by combining these approaches, consumer products organizations can make insights more engaging and actionable. 

Explore data storytelling vs. data visualization >>  

5. Business Translation in Action: Bringing a Digital Engagement Measurement Program to Life 

A multinational biopharmaceutical company partnered with our team to develop a Digital Engagement Measurement Program for campaigns across multiple channels. They needed to move beyond self-reported metrics from partners and generate internal reports to accurately assess program effectiveness. They engaged our team to act as a Business Translator, designing and executing an end-to-end process to turn their data into actionable insights. Sydney Epps, Michael Onore, and Sham Karim share more about the project in this case study. 

Read the business translator project case study >> 

6. How Can I Trust My Data? 4 Principles to Ensure Reliable Insights   

Data drives nearly every business decision today, from simple reports to outputs generated by complex AI and ML models, but its sheer volume and variety can be overwhelming. With information flowing from multiple sources and updating in real time, ensuring reliability becomes a critical concern. By applying a few foundational principles consistently, organizations can build trust in their data and use it to make more confident, strategic decisions. In this article, Erik Sandstrom dives into principles for ensuring reliable insights. 

How can you trust your data? >> 

7. Transforming R&D Data (Tables, Listings, and Figures) for a Biotech Company 

A rapidly growing rare disease biotech company partnered with Clarkston to improve how its R&D teams accessed and interpreted clinical trial data. Manual workflows for analyzing Tables, Figures, and Listings (TLFs) were slow, error-prone, and limited researchers’ ability to see the full picture. Our team designed an intuitive application that streamlined data visualization, giving teams faster, clearer insights into patient information and key biomarkers. Sara Morris and Aaron Chio share more in this case study. 

Dive into this R&D data transformation case study >>