Sunday Morning Business Intelligence Lesson
First, apologizes to my non-sports fan readers. I, too, get that face tightening, head turning expression when a corporate executive tries to relate business performance to some sports concept. However, in this case, there is a lesson (I hope!)…
It’s football season. That means that I, like many other sports geeks, manage a fantasy football team (where the goal is to assemble a collection of NFL football players, aggregate their performance statistics and hope that this week’s total point value is greater than your opponent’s). All this, at least in my case, for the glory (or shame) of the competition. What the heck does this have to do with Business Intelligence?
It’s Sunday morning (game day) so I follow my usual routine of surfing specific websites looking at rankings and projections for my team players so I can properly set my lineup. It struck me this morning that there are some expectations I set through this process that are no different than a CEO/Executive/Employee looking at corporate analytics. By thinking this through, I have a better appreciation for the deliverables that I present as part of a BI initiative. Here are some thoughts…
Fool Me Once, Shame on You; Fool Me Twice, You’re Dead to Me
A report is only as good as the quality of its data. Don’t give me flashy; don’t give me complex. Get me to good data in a simple and direct way. Do that and I’ll keep coming back. Show me information I don’t believe to be good and I’ll never come back.
Get Me Easily to the ‘Why’
I consider myself to be a smart consumer. Show me the analytics (projections) I am looking for but give me access to the underlying data that shows me how you got there. A green/yellow/red dot demos well but it means nothing if I can’t understand the ‘why’.
Validate Don’t Educate
Fundamentally, I am looking for comfort in the analytics. I walk in with an opinion. Validate my assumption (or convince me why I am wrong). Don’t try to educate me on a process I already know.
Help Me Understand the Exceptions
‘Dang, if I had only done a couple of things differently this week’ is not actionable. Give me historical reference so I can understand exceptions and help me decide if this is a trend or fluke. Hunches hardly work.
There is no Such Thing as a ‘Sure Thing’
All the reporting in the world does not guarantee a ‘sure thing’. Sometimes I just end up being wrong. Help me understand why so I can make adjustments (or not) and move on. I have to avoid that ‘this is worthless’ feeling and continue to follow a consistent process… because that is the only way to get to consistent results.
Make Me Look Good!
The number one objective of analytical reporting is to make the decision maker look good. Simple. I takes all the credit when things go well; reporting shares the blame when things go bad. Right or wrong; that’s how it works. Perception is far more important than reality.