How do you balance the technical and business aspects of BI in your role and career?

Getting buy-in for discussing data literacy in a business intelligence project can be challenging, but there are some strategies you can use: Explain the benefits: Start by explaining the benefits of data literacy for both the project and the organization. Benefits include improved decision-making, increased efficiency, a better understanding of the data, and, ultimately, better business outcomes. Start with definitions: It is important to make sure everyone in the conversation has a common understanding of what data literacy means. Be sure to define key terms and concepts, such as data analytics, data visualization, and data-driven decision-making.

In short, 1. Understand the business needs 2. Collaborate with business stakeholders 3. Focus on data quality 4. Stay up-to-date with technology Overall, balancing the technical and business aspects of BI requires a deep understanding of both the technical and business aspects of the solution, and a focus on collaboration and data quality.

When I have designed visualizations and dashboards, I go through a couple of exercises I have found helpful and impact what I ultimately deliver. 1. I understand the requirements I have been given, but what business decisions are going to be made with this report? That may impact what data filters I use, data elements to present, or formatting of data outliers. 2. As I build, I will try to ingest the content as the user. The purpose of the report /dashboard I am building is to answer one or more questions. But once the report is delivered, it usually reveals new questions to answer. As I look at this and ingest the data myself, I try to come up with at least several questions and try to adapt my design to answer those questions too.

In developing your business acumen skills, I would add exposing yourself to the meetings, town halls, quarterly update meetings that leaders and others hold in your organization. Updates you may normally dismiss. Many times, in these forums, you will learn the problems your organization is facing and in most cases your industry is facing as well. This will expose you to how different functions within the organization present, are impacted by, and try to answer problems. That will start to enhance your ability to determine how to take the same data and focus it in the way that speaks most to the stakeholders to which you are providing. Each business unit focuses differently on the same problem. BI provided should match that focus.

Sometimes I hear people say I don't know where to start. Here is one thing to try... If you are a public company, Go on your website, And find your annual report. Annual reports often contain information about Strategic objectives and initiatives to deliver on those objectives. Find those and then find the owners for those initiatives, And have a conversation with them, So you can better understand their business initiatives. This will help you in mapping your data and analytics activities to business goals and objectives.

business acumen is highly important to understand not just the problem but also translate the problem and solution to your business users, I would start with the company's core business(healthcare, advertising, etc.) and take 101 courses to understand that business(healthcare as whole, insurance, medicare, medical, etc.) and then dive into your particular system or area.

Business acumen is imperative to add significant value and gain efficiencies in your work. Asking the right questions, understanding the stakeholders' perspectives, and working with people who have knowledge but don't realize what they know can add value to a project are some significant areas where business acumen can be beneficial. Knowing how each business unit functions and understanding the interdependencies from a personal level is critical. Often we focus on textbook situations and technical details, but in reality, those barely correlate to the actual operations and daily tasks of the people whose work you affect.

1) Be Precise: We all interpret the world around us differently. So be as specific in your meaning as possible, don’t assume the other person is interpreting things in the same way you are. 2) Be Concise: The brain can only hold about 5 to 7 concepts simultaneously. Only include the relevant content, consider grouping things into categories and layering the topics, and/or consider separate conversations for separate topics. 3) Prepare to Excite: The brain generates energy in response to perceived threats and rewards. So based on your knowledge of the other person and context of the situation anticipate potential reactions. Keeping these three concepts in mind can help you communicate better.

You'll need to collaborate with 3 general groups. 1. Data customer - The business person or team who wants an output that you need to build 2. Data custodian/owner - The data will come from somewhere e.g a third party, API, your ERP, a database. 3. IT - A key enabler to delivering the tools and systems you need to develop. Knowing how to work with these groups, the language they use and their objectives will help you in your journey.

We all heard practice makes perfect. The challenge here is DONT shotgun your learning across multiple areas. Try to conquer an area at a time, then progress to the next area. That is the best way to learn continuously and always have something to learn.

When considering a career in BI, take advantage of your experience and transition to a role within the same industry. You will already be familiar with the business acumen from the operational experience. For example, if you are an assembler in a manufacturing company, you already have insight into the process of manufacturing goods. You can then now add data literacy skills related to manufacturing. Your learning curve is much smoother when working in unfamiliar territory. Your strength is the experience from the business side of the business to provide informed insights for decision making.

Very few people are strong in all areas. The technical side is the easiest to teach / learn. Business acumen, which ties in strongly with communication, is what separates the great from the good in the BI world.

I am not sure if it's about the balance* between the business and the technical aspect. To succeed in this role you have to marry the two. Learning the technical aspect is easy, learning the business is hard, fitting the two together and solving business problems with the right technology and delivery method is harder. It requires getting very familiar with the business acumen, having a deep understanding the data and all the gaps that exist, and understanding how to best serve the business with BI solutions.

Technical skills can be trained and learned. In my experience, soft skills are something you have or don't. .