We feel there is a need to balance the role of reporting and insight in businesses.
Why?
Businesses typically have lots and lots of reports.
Often created and owned by BI teams.
And often used defensively to say that insight has been provided to the business.
But reports do not equal insights.
They are different things.
And there is a role for both.
Reports provide metrics for consistent tracking; quick decision making on the health of a KPI; the ability to spot patterns that may require further investigation. They need to be standardised for efficiencies and tracking consistency, enabling the consumption of the reports to be straightforward and easily incorporated into business planning processes.
Reports may enable the reader to identify shifts in performance against KPIs and make key business decisions in response to the metrics.
But they do not set out to uncover insights.
Analysis explores for correlations between events and metrics; looking for answers to hypotheses: uncovering opportunities and risks that are hidden in top-line metrics. Analysis and the translation of the analysis are where the insights can be surfaced. It can be an iterative process when undertaking an analysis project, discussing the findings and surfacing new lines of exploration.
Expecting a business owner to interpret BI reports and tell a story of the data and mine the reports for insights is like asking me to plumb in a sink. It is not a skill set many business owners are trained or experienced in.
So when looking at your businesses portfolio of data insight and reporting, consider the role that each has to play and how skilled the business owners are to use them to fulfil their role. Should you need to bolster the data literacy of your business owners, or expand the remit of your analytics team, you will have a clear understanding of the gaps you need to fill.
We Are MoJo works with many businesses to design pragmatic, usable reporting and insight strategies to aid a businesses growth. Get in touch with us today to discuss how we can help you.