Does your data tell you a story?

Does your data tell you a story?

There’s an old saying that if you interrogate data long and hard enough, it will admit to just about everything. While it is meant to be taken in a lighter vein, it also reflects how data forms the backbone of informed decision making and our proclivity towards digging deep for, at times, beyond what is necessary. Raw data is everywhere. There are different kinds of information available in the form of huge data volumes. “The amount of data in the world was estimated to be at 44 Zettabytes at the start of 2020. To put things into perspective, one zettabyte has 21 zeros.” (total amount of data generated each day by social media sites, financial institutions, medical facilities, shopping platforms, automakers, and others, as per World Economic Forum. ) Many analysts point out that the amount of data is doubling every three years… but as the Americans say – “you ain’t seen nothin’ yet” 

A data dashboard is an information management tool that visually tracks, analyzes, and displays KPIs, key data points, and metrics. These metrics help in monitoring the health of a business unit, or a process, or even the entire organization depending on who the users are. It can be customized depending on the need. For instance, a CEO will look at data from a strategic vantage point and may not be in great need of real-time information which may be most critical at an operational level. 

How should your data dashboard look like?

There are three angles to it – the kind of business questions that dashboards need to answer; the type of data being tracked; and, of course, the interactivity. 

Behind the attractive visualization (tables, graphs, charts, etc.) a dashboard connects with disparate data lying in files, web servers, IT systems and numerous attachments. Raw data lying in a vast array of sources is consolidated to present in a customized format (depending on who is viewing it) to answer the most burning questions. Specific KPIs that align with business goals can be drilled down which also double up as benchmarks. 

Data dashboards play an important role in Business Intelligence (BI). They are tools that enable BI practices and provide deep insights that can be used for performance management. Additionally, dashboards are equipped with predictive analytics and are often used in forecasting. 

Earlier, when mainframe computers were in vogue, it was much harder to grasp “business intelligence” and it often required IT professionals to prepare reports. At that point, the human in the loop, was a critical element in the entire data value chain. Let’s look at an example. A spreadsheet captures all the sales data of the past quarter and it runs into hundreds of lines. The data dump is overwhelming and retrieval of information can be a daunting task which is why human intervention was required in order to make sense of it. 

However, using a sales report created with a dashboard, the information can be customized down to sales rep level showing deal closing rates, average order size and lifetime value of customers, and such like. This is, of course, a rather simplistic example. Today dashboards have become even more comprehensive. They come with interactive features that have adopted the style of storytelling, offering real-time information depicted in info-graphic style reports. Unless one is exceptionally numerically-oriented, bland numbers fade away with time but powerful narratives scripted from raw data remain firmly entrenched in the mind much longer. It’s very common to see cartoon strips from Dilbert or Peanuts being featured in corporate decks – even those presented to board members. This idea of copious amounts of data that segues into a powerful narrative has now become commonplace.    

What are the different types of dashboards available?

Based on the end-user and his/her specific data demands below is a variety of dashboards available:

Strategic/Executive

Typically, these reflect a high-level overview of KPIs and metrics that senior leaders within the organization can monitor regularly. The aim is to provide strategic guidance on the performance of business functions with specific thresholds acting as alerts. 

Analytical/Tactical

If the dashboard provides more in-depth information and allows users to drill down to slice and dice to reveal trends and insights, then it’s said to be a tactical dashboard.

Operational 

This kind needs almost real-time data so things can be monitored on spot and actioned the moment there’s a discrepancy. These kinds are viewed multiple times a day and monitored keeping the hurly-burly of the target always in mind. 

Then we have based on information hierarchy dashboards:

KPI Dashboards

They contain specific KPIs that executives get informed about (once a day, perhaps). It isn’t required to be granular and focuses on what’s important in the current month, quarter, or the year.

Q&A Dashboards

Insights such as the top sales per sales rep, department, or region (for instance) can be sought here. This kind helps to uncover specific business objectives. 

Top-down Dashboards

The hierarchy is as the name suggests. It shows a high-level overview of specific KPIs and drills down to more details through visualization – charts, graphs, etc. 

Bottom-up Dashboards

Exactly the opposite, starting with granularity and then goes on to summarize the information to align with specific KPIs.  

One Big Chart Dashboard

It’s usually seen as one big chart (e.g. map, organizational chart, etc.) and a mouse-hover on a specific item will lead to greater functionality and drill-down. It gives a macro view of things and is ideal for analysts and economists who are tasked with direction-setting. 

One mustn’t get carried away by the optics of it all. Story-telling is a very powerful way of communication and increasingly it is becoming the norm. We must bear in mind that dashboards do tell a story and in a fanciful way but ultimately, the insights have to be acted upon. That’s where leadership counts. There may be instances where data reveals a certain insight that may be at loggerheads with traditional “gut-feel” and is nudging the business unit towards a direction which may even be unprecedented. 

The question is, what do leaders do? Do they have the wherewithal to change direction or should they wait for a longer time till the thumping on the door gets louder? These questions are not easily answered and are always situational. But what we can and must ensure is that data available is clean. Data-driven decisions can alter the fate of an organization and we simply cannot afford to have inaccurate data, telling us a riveting story!


Abhishek Dua

Regional Accounting and Controlling Manager

4y

A picture is worth a thousand words... I believe the same goes for #data as well... Accurate #visualizations of correct and clean data not only gives the necessary #valueadd but also ensures the stickiness of the audience…

Foram Maru

Engagement Leader - Assistant Vice President at Practus | Business Enablement & Digital Transformation

4y

Absolutely Deepak! All we can say is 'Visualisation speaks louder than Words' in our langauge we can call it Data. In the long run to make decisions would be simpler if such huge data is visualised well.Visualisation would be effective only if the dashboards are well designed and prepared for the right audience, then it can shape narratives into correct findings, trends and underlying patterns providing the user with complete story!

Venkat S

Founder at Practus | Leadership | Owner Managed Companies | Performance Improvement Specialist | #ROIDelivered

4y

Agree Deepak Narayanan. The world belongs to the 'story tellers' (I mean it in a positive way). As leaders of a country, as CEOs, as sales persons and increasingly for CFOs, the skill lies in articulating a message, in doing it in simple (not simplistic) terms and doing it in a way that keeps the audience engaged. Data availability is no longer a bottleneck to decision making, not making sense of the data definitely is. Well designed dashboards go a long way in telling the story. Dashboards align all stakeholders on where we are where, where we are going and what we need to do to get there. The reason lies in the way humans have evolved. The human mind processes pictures way better than numbers or words. More power to #storytellers. More power to #dashboards

Nikhil Jain

Chartered Accountant | CFO Advisory & Management Consulting Professional

4y

True that Deepak! While we know that such huge data is expected to be processed in near future, it's very important to also know how to mine it for most valuable insights. An organisation is impacted by varied data sources, we should track it at every details of the metrics at every turn. Yet, they are helpful only if you can understand them and act on what they are telling you. Visualisations definately help in improved decision making by faster response time, data accuracy, and not the least, by felicitating ease of communication.

Arun Sriram

Chartered Accountant | Standup Comedian

4y

Am a big fan of personas when it comes to dashboards. Have an inventory of x reports. But depending on the role of the person using the dashboards, the select few dashboards pop up at the console. And each sheet calling out, what questions are answered. Add to it a little simulator and the fun doubles. The key to a dashboard is the trade-off between speed and data depth. And in my view dashboards should not go to transaction levels just because it can. Having a link to files that have detailed data sets could be just sufficiency. Tableau for one had a cool narrative feature that gives basic finding level commentary. But insights as always are better scripted manually by someone with business intimacy

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