Understanding the business you are in is critical to producing quality work. The further an analytical resource is from this knowledge, the more likely the results are churned out without vetting the validity of the data. Then again, individuals immersed too heavily in the culture or business can produce biases when analyzing for honest answers. This article in HBR speaks to the subject of where analytics fits within the structure of a team.

https://hbr.org/2017/06/3-things-are-holding-back-your-analytics-and-technology-isnt-one-of-them