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Comment by TOMDM | Hacker News Reader

I've been doing a fair amount of BI work myself recently.

I reckon of the 90% that don't make any data driven decisions with the dashboards they're provided, there are three causes I run into frequently.

1. They can't describe what info they need

2. That info isn't available.

3. They don't make decisions based on data at all.

I feel I'm getting better at addressing 1 and 2 the more I do it, but I figure there's a fair amount from group 3 who demand the reports nonetheless...

As an aside, you mention Tableau, QlikView or PowerBI, have you tried Apache Superset at all?

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> there's a fair amount from group 3 who demand the reports nonetheless...

It’s a very important function: provide data that can be cherry-picked to support a decision already made.

If the decision is too complex for that, hire a big consulting firm to write a report suggesting and justifying the action desired.

A decison staple surely going back millennia.

Let's be fair and provide the other side's view: gathering focused data can prove the need for a decision that faces internal (and often irrational) opposition to necessary change.

Yes on 3.

One way to solve is to automate the action from insight part and inject into users workflow. I am looking at this now with support of senior sales stakeholders.

Simple example:

Client X activity has been trending down vs it's peer group, Call Client X to understand what's going on.

I like the idea.

Only works if you've got buy-in from management though.

This is the direction that I'd like to see more people moving in: pushing insights to users rather than expecting users to come to dashboards and get those insights.

Nobody is saying "I'd love another tool that I am expected to check every day", both embedded analytics and insights are how to drive adoption and unlock value from data.

Are there any good examples of this already out there?

It feels like a good idea, but I imagine it would be very fragile in black swan events.

Maybe a mix?

Provide the dashboards, but allow users to set up alerts/workflows, they understand the problem well, and if they know what they're going to be going to the dash to find, let them skip that step. In case something new happens, they can set up a new alert/workflow/whatever for the next time it happens.

> pushing insights to users

This is part of the expectation of business analysts, that they will surface and communicate data not immediately being asked for by executives or other stakeholders. This usually means running a meeting and presenting findings, and then pairing with another stakeholder to flesh out further opportunity.

If there's no one to pick up the baton, there's very little that can be done about that.

I'd add a fourth: having no idea or model how the past relates to future/what are predictors of success or failure in the data

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