Why analysts make great authors

About one-fourth of my author clients are former analysts for Forrester, Gartner, or similar organizations. I find them consistently the best people to work with.

You may think this is just me being clubby, since I was an analyst until about ten years ago. You might also believe I’m just reacting to selection bias: that someone vetted and hired to be an analyst tends to be a graduate of an elite school with a background in industry or consulting.

But I truly believe those are not the main reasons analysts make good authors. And that’s good, because the skills these analysts have are skills you can develop, even if you never worked for one of these companies.

The skills that make analysts great authors

These analyst skills are also valuable for authors.

• Understand what an idea is: a connection, trend, or thesis that hasn’t been commonly shared before.
• Are skilled at marshaling evidence to build logical arguments.
• Understand how to appropriately interpret and cite survey and statistical research.
• Understand the power of brevity, since analyst clients don’t have patience for reports filled with fluff.
• Are used to being challenged and edited by other thinkers to make their ideas sharper and more original.
• Have courage; don’t fear being wrong from time to time.
• Understand the value of researching a space broadly over a period of years to become true experts.
• Have broad networks that can be tapped for expert opinions and case studies.
• Are endlessly curious, always looking for patterns and ideas that haven’t been seen before.
• Think in terms of industries, not just companies.
• Build named intellectual frameworks that they can use to analyze the world.
• Imagine not just the world we live in now, but the world that current trends will cause to come into being.

Analysts aren’t perfect. They tend to be arrogant, prickly, overspecialized, and attention-seeking. (If you’re an analyst reading this, I’m sure this applies to others, not you.) If that’s the cost of working with somebody who is truly in search of original, powerful ideas, it’s worth it.

You can do this

Do you want to think like this? It will make you a more powerful and more effective author.

Here’s all you have to do.

• Cultivate endless curiosity. When you see something that doesn’t match your assumptions, try to learn more, not to deny its existence.
• Embrace thought partners. Work with analyst-level coauthors or developmental editors. Learn from having your work challenged.
• Spread your wings. Don’t stay in a narrow specialty; learn as much as possible about related parts of the space you know about.
• Be future-focused and strategic. Ask “If this continues, how will the world be different?”
• Edit your sentences to be more direct, less repetitive, and free of meaningless adverbs and adjectives (like “very” or “often”).
• When possible, write in bullets and lists.
• Write things yourself. Don’t use AI to substitute for your thinking or writing skills.

The world could use more thinkers like this. The technology research market is shrinking. The people who think like this in the future are more likely to be authors than analysts.

Could that be you?