AI is going to impact businesses of all shapes and sizes across all industries. Discover how to prepare your organization for an AI-driven world in my new book, The Intelligence Revolution: Transforming Your Business With AI. Thank you for reading my post. Here at LinkedIn and at Forbes I regularly write about management and technology trends. To read my future posts simply join my network here or click 'Follow'. Also feel free to connect with me via Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Slideshare or YouTube. About Bernard Marr Bernard Marr is a world-renowned futurist, influencer and thought leader in the field of business and technology. He is the author of 18 best-selling books, writes a regular column for Forbes and advises and coaches many of the world’s best-known organisations. He has over 2 million social media followers and was ranked by LinkedIn as one of the top 5 business influencers in the world and the No 1 influencer in the UK.

1. How Do You Create
Great Data Exploration Dashboards
To Democratize Analytics?

2. © 2020 Bernard Marr, Bernard Marr & Co. All rights reserved
Title
Text
Introduction
Introduction
Organizations must do more to make all the data they collect accessible to
business users in a self-serve environment with a nice user interface. Effective
organizations treat their data like a self-serve buffet where some analysis of
important questions to be answered is done to lead business users to the
relevant insights.
How Do You Create Great Data Exploration
Dashboards To Democratize Analytics?

3. © 2020 Bernard Marr, Bernard Marr & Co. All rights reserved
With all the data that’s created each day and the possibilities for making data-driven
decisions in business, every company must have a way to present data to business users in
a user-friendly and informative way.
In my experience, a lot of organizations get this wrong. In the pursuit of making data
accessible to everyone, many organizations simply add a nice user interface on top of a
huge data lake and consider the job done. Voila! They think this allows business users to
find the data and analyze it in a self-serve environment.
In practice, I find that instead of empowering business users, this actually makes them feel
threatened and overwhelmed. I often meet business users that don’t know exactly what
data to use and how to use it.
You must do more than just provide decision-makers with access to data.

4. © 2020 Bernard Marr, Bernard Marr & Co. All rights reserved
Provide A User-Friendly Buffet Of Data Choices To
Decision-Makers
Think of your data exploration dashboard like a self-service buffet restaurant.
Do buffet restaurants pile a bunch of raw ingredients into a massive trough
without any order and then provide you with a fork to sort through the mess?
No. Rather they set up an orderly arrangement of starters, salads, and main
courses where you can easily walk around the buffet to develop the dining
experience you prefer. Some even have an omelet, prime rib, or other cooking
stations to make it really easy for patrons to construct their own meals.

5. © 2020 Bernard Marr, Bernard Marr & Co. All rights reserved
How can this buffet analogy apply to data exploration dashboards?
Think about the business questions the business users might need to have
answered. For example, a marketing manager might want to understand what
accounts are doing really well and what accounts are in danger of churning.
By doing some analysis of the data in advance of the business users accessing it,
you guide business users to insights and help them find the data they need. This
pre-defined analysis or these pre-defined questions make data more useful.

6. © 2020 Bernard Marr, Bernard Marr & Co. All rights reserved
Self-Exploration Is Not Useful For All Your Data
Another error many organizations make is not reporting their most strategic
information in a meaningful way. While much time and energy go into selecting
the appropriate data points and KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) for an
organization and then tracking data and numbers, the insights are often lost
when the communication is simply based on self-service analytics. When
reporting your most strategic insights, it’s important that it’s done in a way that
allows decision-makers to easily understand the key insights.
The most effective way to communicate performance is by using numbers,
tables, and charts as well as words to put the performance in context.
Organizations that carefully curate KPI dashboards are the ones who use data
and KPIs effectively.

7. © 2020 Bernard Marr, Bernard Marr & Co. All rights reserved
Self-Exploration Is Not Useful For All Your Data
To be sure data isn’t lost in translation, subject matter experts should carefully curate the
data points and the insights that data delivers to share with execs. Consider this step like a
fine dining experience. When you enjoy an outing to a fine dining establishment, the
entire experience is curated from the ingredients selected to the entrees and
accompaniments to how everything is presented on the plate.
Apply this fine-dining thinking to your KPI dashboard. Instead of giving execs all the data
that’s gathered, showcase and focus decision-makers’ attention on the data that matters.
This should be the data that helps business users understand progress toward a strategic
objective and the insights execs need to make data-informed decisions.
The most effective KPI dashboards use a combination of words, numbers, and visuals to
communicate key messages and progress toward achieving strategic objectives.
Unfortunately, when insights aren't communicated, disaster can result.

8. © 2020 Bernard Marr, Bernard Marr & Co. All rights reserved
Self-Exploration Is Not Useful For All Your Data
When NASA was developing the space shuttle Challenger, there were some engineers
who had grave concerns about the O-rings used. While the data was communicated to
decision-makers, the insight about the potential failure of the O-ring was lost in
translation. As you know, this was more than a communication failure; it was catastrophic.
Don’t report data and fail to report insights to decision-makers. Ensure understanding by
decision-makers by carefully curating your KPI dashboards. To learn more about how to
do so, please check out my YouTube channel.
It's important to lead business users to the data that they will find the most useful instead
of providing access to all data and expecting them to uncover what they need. When
reporting KPIs, also be sure that your organization curates the data and insights and
presents them to decision-makers through the use of a KPI dashboard that uses visuals,
words, and numbers to communicate.

9. Bernard Marr is an internationally best-selling author, popular keynote speaker, futurist, and a
strategic business & technology advisor to governments and companies. He helps
organisations improve their business performance, use data more intelligently, and
understand the implications of new technologies such as artificial intelligence, big data,
blockchains, and the Internet of Things.
LinkedIn has ranked Bernard as one of the world’s top 5 business influencers. He is a frequent
contributor to the World Economic Forum and writes a regular column for Forbes. Every day
Bernard actively engages his 1.5 million social media followers and shares content that
reaches millions of readers.
Visit The
Website
© 2020 Bernard Marr , Bernard Marr & Co. All rights reserved
© 2017 Bernard Marr , Bernard Marr & Co. All rights reserved
© 2020 Bernard Marr, Bernard Marr & Co. All rights reserved
Bernard Marr is an internationally best-selling author, popular keynote speaker, futurist, and a
strategic business & technology advisor to governments and companies. He helps
organisations improve their business performance, use data more intelligently, and
understand the implications of new technologies such as artificial intelligence, big data,
blockchains, and the Internet of Things.
LinkedIn has ranked Bernard as one of the world’s top 5 business influencers. He is a frequent
contributor to the World Economic Forum and writes a regular column for Forbes. Every day
Bernard actively engages his 1.5 million social media followers and shares content that
reaches millions of readers.
Visit The
Website

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© 2020 Bernard Marr, Bernard Marr & Co. All rights reserved