Find the Economic Story Hidden in Your Data

EDO AI PLAYBOOK · 7 OF 15 · VERSION 1.0

By Andy Greiner

Most communities can find a number that looks impressive in isolation. The useful question is what the number demonstrates to a relevant prospect. This workflow searches for defensible propositions and tests the strongest alternative explanation before producing marketing language.

Employment, establishment, investment, wage and demographic data; source notes; time periods; geography definitions; peer regions; target industries; known methodological changes.

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Act as a skeptical economic-development data editor. Inventory every supplied dataset before drawing conclusions: producer, period, geography, population covered, units, revision status, missing values and comparability limitations. Flag incompatible series and do not combine them silently.

Identify candidate patterns relevant to the target industries: concentration, growth, specialization, labor access, supplier depth or infrastructure advantage. Show the calculation, denominator and comparison behind each pattern. Distinguish absolute scale from growth rate, nominal from inflation-adjusted amounts, and announced investment from realized activity. Do not substitute zero for an undisclosed value.

For each candidate proposition give the strongest supporting evidence, the strongest counterevidence and an alternative explanation. Test whether a small base, changed boundaries, a single large employer, a revised classification or a selected comparison period drives the apparent result. Avoid causal language when the data show only association.

Rank a maximum of five propositions by relevance to a prospect and strength of evidence, not by how dramatic they sound. Return a claim card for each: plain-language claim, exact supporting figures, source and date, appropriate comparison, material caveat and recommended follow-up research.

Draft a headline and short paragraph for the top supported proposition. Preserve qualifications that change its meaning. If no strong claim is supported, say so and propose the additional data needed. Include three claims the EDO should avoid and explain why.

Finish with a reproducibility checklist so a colleague can recreate the calculations from the supplied data. Never fabricate a ranking, national comparison, multiplier or competitive advantage.

Have a colleague reproduce the key calculation and read the source’s methodology. Check that the proposed headline is no broader than the data’s scope.

Rewrite the strongest claim for a company considering this region, explaining the operational relevance in 100 words without adding new factual claims.

Pick one claim already on your website and build its source-and-denominator card.

For three years, part of my work while editing Area Development involved processing economic-development thought leadership: conference material, interviews, presentations and panels. That editorial experience informs the problems I choose to tackle here. These workflows are Location Decision’s practical tools, developed to help economic developers organize evidence, ask better questions and prepare stronger work.

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