11. Don’t: Go too technical in the methodology

One common pitfall is a too detailed methodology section. It may sound counterintuitive to “Answer questions before they are asked”, but while your basic analytical decisions are important to mention, very few readers (some of the peer reviewers and probably a fellow analyst or two) want to get very technical. For their sake, the end of your dashboard or article is a great place for a more detailed methods appendix, ****if you have one. You can also externalize this type of information as a separate page or article, for those who want to dive deeper.

In the body of your work, lead with the general-audience version of your methodology, and mention where to dig deeper for the rest.