A Data Analyst and an ADHD Coach Walk into a Bar...
A big-picture conversation with Pauline McKinney on how to use numbers to understand your ADHD—and when to trust your intuition instead.
Hello readers!
Today I’m very excited to share this unexpected and delightful conversation with Pauline McKinney. Pauline is a data analyst who I met at a networking event held at a very noisy bar here in Chicago. I have to admit, there was an initial micro-moment where I wondered what a data analyst and an ADHD coach would have to talk about—but it turns out, there was a lot!
We nerded-out together about personal transformation and growth—it turns out Pauline has a deep understanding of the hero’s journey—she has even has a super engaging podcast about it! In her day job at her data analysis company, Be The Data Hero, Pauline is community-oriented—passionate about connection and collaboration as the cornerstones of any resilient business—values which I’m also engaging with as I grow my ADHD coaching business.
I had a lot of fun interviewing her for this post. As an ADHD coach, and someone who has used data and numbers to try to understand my own ADHD, I was curious to ask Pauline about how we can best use numbers to understand ourselves, what to do about shortcomings in the data, and the role that intuition can play. I hope you enjoy the nuance and clarity in Pauline’s responses as much as I did!
Pauline McKinney has unlocked hero status at companies for 20 years by delighting bosses and boards with innovative ideas, creative solutions, and beautifully impactful visualizations that drive faster decisions and new ideas.
She’s the founder of Be The Data Hero, an audaciously irreverent company on a mission to help businesses work smarter, not harder.
You can find out more about Be The Data Hero here, and listen to Pauline’s podcast on becoming the hero in your own life here. Follow her on Instagram here and here, and on LinkedIn here.
Hi Pauline, and thank you for taking the time for this interview—I can’t wait to dive in! As an ADHD coach, I love sharing facts and data with my clients because it can really help them to see that what they are struggling with isn't personal, and that they are not alone. It can help them change the story they tell about themselves. Could you speak to the power of data in changing one's story?
This is a fantastic question! Here’s the interesting thing: when you think back to any time you’ve felt very new to something (a new city, new role, new route, a new tv remote)—what do you do? You look for information that can help orient and guide you.
This is the power of data: It brings help in the form of numbers that clearly show you aren’t alone and other people have found ways to thrive (which means you can too).
Digging into the data and using it to help you process and orient yourself can help you feel more comfortable and safe. It’s in that comfort and safety that you can adapt and change your feelings and story around yourself and the path you’re taking.
Many folks with ADHD are big-picture thinkers and can get frustrated and impatient with small details. For anyone wanting to pore through the data to get a better understanding of their ADHD—what advice would you give us?
There are two friends that can help you here: Questions & Visualizations.
Questions
Questions are important because the better the question, the better the result.
Think of questions as doorways to understanding and if you ask a very broad question like “what are the signs of ADHD,” the quality of result will be very different than a question like “what are the signs of ADHD in women over 25 struggling at work?”
Some tips on asking good questions:
What will I want to use this information for? (This can help you get more specific—are you looking for guidance? A number? Confirmation?)
What am I trying to understand and how specific can I get about this question?
What’s your priority for results? Recency? Authority? Relevancy?
Visualizations
As a big picture thinker myself, I prefer visualized data over detailed spreadsheets. One fantastic example of the power of visualization is this dashboard created around the topic of ADHD.
In this dashboard—numbers and facts are visualized to show trends, patterns, and pictures instead of just numbers.
Tableau is a free tool that can be used to visualize data.
One thing we have to deal with when looking at research on ADHD is that women and people of color have been under-represented in studies for decades and there is very little work that speaks to the experience of trans and non-binary folks. How do you look for and account for bias in the data?
This one is tough and also very common. It’s one of those problems that can never really be solved because (today more than ever before) things change so rapidly and the systems, processes, and data are usually lagging from where we are today.
For this one, when data doesn’t exist or doesn’t feel like what you know to be true, I’d recommend you follow yourself. Think of it as an invitation to start collecting your own data and arriving at your own conclusions (and then you have a basis of comparison for the data that is out there, knowing the research you see is lagging in comparison to your own experience)
This one's a bit technical but it’s inspired by a really interesting summary of research around convergent thinking and ADHD that I just read. For background—folks with ADHD are known to excel at divergent thinking (ie. brainstorming options) and to struggle with convergent thinking (ie. picking one option from many and sticking with it). This new research suggests that folks with ADHD are actually good at convergent thinking, but they do so using intuition rather than a step-by-step analytical process. So that was a long preamble, but I was wondering if you see a role for intuition in data analysis, and if so could you describe it?
This is SUCH a great question!
Intuition has been villainized in our logic-heavy society, but the truth is, there’s room for data and intuition.
I like to think of this through the lens of a journey. I’ll use parenting as an example.
When I was a brand new parent - I devoured books, read every review before buying anything, and used all the apps to track all the things. Data was my very best friend!
As I became more familiar with navigating parenthood through my own experience, I started to rely on my intuition and sense for what was right for me.
I’m wondering if this is the case for ADHD folks as well? As you become more familiar with yourself in your journey, you begin to get a sense for what’s normal for you. Once you understand yourself better, you gain confidence to make decisions and act from your intuition. I’m sure there are exceptions, but that’s my broader sense for the role of intuition in data analysis.
As you begin to know what’s normal and right for you, you can see the data and intuit what’s right for you (which means there’s choice and empowerment from having access to both).
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ICYMI
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