A Practical Guide to Reading Trend Reports

Written by

in

,

Trend reports can be helpful, but they often blur the line between real movement and polished narrative.

A better approach is to ask four questions: who measured this, how was it measured, what changed versus last year, and what behavior would this actually alter?

A trend is only useful if it changes a decision.

When a report cannot answer that, it may still be interesting, but it is probably not operational.