As companies collect more and more data, the ultimate goal is to translate this data into insights that can help them optimize business performance. For example, they may wonder which of their customer segments is most profitable? How they can reduce their customer acquisition costs? Which features of their flagship product are underutilized or need to be enhanced? Which of their best employees are potential flight risks? In most cases, answering one of these questions will lead to . . . more questions. When the questions you can ask the data are unlimited but the time and resources to find the answers aren’t, you need a strategy for how you query the data for meaningful insights. We often like to say, “There’s no such thing as a stupid question.” However, when it comes to analytics, some questions can be poorly phrased, ill-conceived or misguided. They can lead to costly, time-consuming expeditions into the data that don’t yield any actionable insights. The French philosopher Voltaire said, “Judge a man by his questions rather than his answers.” This same standard can be applied to organizations. Companies that struggle to get meaningful insights from their data are often not asking the right questions. The better the quality of your questions, the more valuable your insights will be. Preparation is a key success factor to querying data effectively and discovering meaningful insights.