The central ideas and much of the following are from Samantha Stone’s excellent book on marketing that works called, Unleash Possible. You could whitewash it and say that data is only misleading, but data by itself, can turn reality on its head. Data is not productively actionable without a human analyst. Here are four (of the many) ways that data lies: 1. It only tells us what, not why: Behavioral data doesn’t reveal the underlying reasons behind actions. To do this, you