Mean or Median: Pick the Average That Matches the Decision
Distinguish when to use mean versus median in workplace data.
The statistic should match the decision, not the slide template. Mean vs. median Averages answer different questions. The mean is the balancing point and uses every observation, so it fits total load, revenue exposure, and symmetric distributions. The median is the middle ordered value, so it fits typical experience when skew or outliers would drag the mean away from what most people see. The mechanism is leverage. Extreme values have distance, and the mean preserves that distance. The median only cares about rank. When mean and median diverge, the gap is usually the story: a few enterprise deals, a long…
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