Analytics Isn't for Analysts

A colleague sent me a thought provoking post I had to share. It’s written by the very talented and insightful Anna Filippova . It’s simply titled “Analytics isn't for analysts.”

She makes two main points, the first being:

Being data driven is the responsibility of your executive team.?

There’s quite a bit to unpack from that one statement, but my takeaway is that the enterprise value of data analytics can be unlocked only when senior leadership “walks the walk and talks the talk” of decision making based on data. Not internal politics. Not who pounds the table the loudest. Not history (as in “we tried that five years ago…”) and not based on quips, witticisms, or charisma. It’s up to leadership to replace those other methods with data-based decision making.?

Her second point, and it ties to the first, is that data and data discovery needs to be democratized.?

Here she draws inspiration from another highly talented data analyst named Tristan Handy . He too posted about this topic and drew a really compelling analogy.?

Back in the day Executives were not expected to type. In fact most did not. There were instead “typing pools” where trained specialists would take handwritten notes or dictation and write the letter, report, or memorandum.?

Today, of course, Executives know how to type. That’s how they compose those emails you get at all hours of the day and night. That’s how they book their flights and make hotel reservations. It’s how they order from Amazon. That’s how they dispute their Amex bill. It’s how they edited their kid’s common college application.?

Part of this evolution came from technology advancements. Clunky unforgiving typewriters were replaced by laptops, the mouse and autocorrect. The entire User Experience (UX) and requisite training changed dramatically.

The key -- just as it was when ending the Typing Pool -- is self service.

I’d like to share directly from Ana’s blog post. “Data exploration is also information. Sometimes you have to look at twenty tables or charts broken down by all kinds of segment permutations before you see The Thing. And because data exploration is, or should be, for everyone, I think this is exactly where self service data solutions usually fall down. You can’t possibly anticipate all the drill downs you might need in order to help someone truly understand what unusual thing is happening and why.”

That’s why free-form drill downs are so critical to delivering a true self-service environment for Business Intelligence. The ability to drill into Revenue (for example) by Country>Region>Sales Territory and just as easily flip to Revenue by Day>Category>SKU>Sales Rep or any other possible combination is central to data discovery. The key is not just defining hierarchies, but relationships between the dimensions. That’s as technical as I’ll get in this post, but suffice it to say you can’t deliver true transformation without it.

Is that the only thing holding us back from self-service BI? No, the entire UX needs to be intuitive and easy. As professionals we need to be reminded that what is “simple and easy” for us is not necessarily the same standard for the rest of the organization. How much training did you need the first time you ordered on Amazon? Make that your new standard. The closer you can get the happier your organization will be, and the more you’ll be able to democratize data discovery and ensure that analytics isn't only for the analysts.