Visual Guidance Manual: A new way to integrate data into the business

This content contributor, Lee Feinberg, is the founder of the US Management consulting agency Decisionviz, a bachelor and Master's degree from Cornell University in the United States and a patent for the U.S. PC telephone interface, and is a member of the Cornell Entrepreneur Network and the Sandler Sales Institute. Decisionviz is a consulting firm that helps companies get rid of complex data-reporting problems through visualization technology. Lee is often invited to speak, and he is also the founder of the Tableau Software user group in the York.

As early as ten years ago, Lee realized that with the massive growth of Internet data, visualization technology would come to the fore. His Decision visualization? Business strategy and draw-on? There are big customers in the visualization process, such as IBM, Ford and Nokia. Prior to the creation of Decisionviz, he joined Nokia in 2009 and was responsible for integrating the data into every session. His team released data visualization services, and more than 1000 employees were able to access the dashboard for data analysis. His slogan is "Let business intelligence into the business". He created an analytical management practice for Ford Motor Company. He also defines online metrics for IBM and introduces interactive visualization techniques.

You need to turn visualization into a strategy that leads to success, not just a graph-making activity. Re-thinking about visualization will create new opportunities that will allow us to integrate data into our business in a new way. This will lead to a better and faster decision-making process for the enterprise. I want you to keep an open mind and discover these opportunities to reshape your organization. In addition, slowly you will encounter some situation, these changes itself will have organic changes. Now there is a point of reference that can help you understand the current state of the situation and help the Organization to move in the right direction. Your organization undergoes a series of transformations, starting with the tactical work of charting, and transforming it into a delivery model with a new functional and operational role.

The following 4 stages of the transformation process:

Data-driven: This approach is used by most organizations. They rely on IT to visualize data and then integrate all aspects of the analysis to monitor development insights from an angle. In addition, the business team receives the Excel files on a regular basis, creating its own charts, which include a large amount of data manipulation, aggregation, and reorganization work.

Data visualization: Forward-looking organizations buy software that allows business users to manipulate data and visualize in a more flexible way. This process includes connecting directly to the database, developing interactive activities, and publishing dashboards accessible by available browsers. In addition, the user must also upgrade from a chart producer to a visualization practitioner with best practice as the first.

Decision-driven: software and hardware are not the panacea for solving data problems or continually discovering meaningful insights. In fact, while many teams focus on data, they don't really understand exactly what business decisions they are implementing. The goal now is to make it easier for others to understand their decisions, rather than the data--to make your new software and technology really useful.

Decision Visualization: In addition to learning new software and visualization techniques, there are a number of issues that change the structure of the BI method. You need to speed up your rotation, measure the impact of usage and visualization, provide top customer support and promote your work (you can't just develop the technology and think that it will be a broad success).

Every change involves a lot of detail, and they take months to complete. Then your team needs to use a strategic framework to define their long-term principles, management models, roles and responsibilities, and so on. In addition, W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne's book, Blue Ocean strategy, is a very good foundation that can help you better understand the content of this series of articles.

So how do you shift from data-driven to decision visualization drivers? The key is to understand what is really going on (and not what) and then decide how much of this activity to do. Here is my understanding of business intelligence, consisting of 11 parts, which ultimately constitute the entire blue ocean strategy.

1. Visual Training

2. Management Directives

3. Bold design

4. IT reports

5. Storytelling

6. Session

7. Interactive

8. Openness

9. Speed

10. Lifecycle Management

11. Customer Focus

Visual training

Almost everyone uses tools like Excel to create charts-but that doesn't mean they know how to create visualizations. You must learn and practise this skill. There are many books, courses and websites devoted to this subject. I strongly recommend that you take a course in a professional learning visualization. Then, when talking to people who want to show you how to create visualizations, you can tell them: "I've already learned these things in class." ”

Specialized in some software training is also necessary. Don't expect team members to be able to quickly master the basics while completing their job. As a result, it is likely that many people will think that visualization software is not efficient or difficult to use. If you're forced to take some Excel training, I bet everyone will like it better.

Last but not least, IT staff and business people must attend training together-in the same training room. It also makes sense to have other teams participate. This can create a common base, and then all teams will naturally ask questions and face some long-term challenges with a relaxed mindset.

In addition, you should also consider adding some input and still support the team within a month or two after the training. First, this shows the sense of organizational identity. Second, it motivates people to test and break themselves, so they can find a way to quickly stimulate their energy. Third, the feedback from the support staff will give you an idea of the progress and identify potential problems that might be encountered in future expansion of the scale of implementation.

Management directives

In addition to investing in money, management has a responsibility to support the changes that they need, both in action and verbally, for all those who adopt new methods. Having them take part in the training (at least partially) will make their words more persuasive, give them the opportunity to hear the front lines, and allow them to accurately explain the training to colleagues (and superiors).

I'm sure you've met with senior management. Be sure to prepare a 15-minute speech and question and answer session for management. If management doesn't think the importance of the project is enough for him or her to devote time, then you have to consider whether the whole effort is worthwhile-and that's very important!

Once changes occur, management can use new tools and new methods of work to strengthen it. Before the new model is mastered, there are some people who can easily use the old method with less time (and, likewise, continuous support is important). For example, if you are ready to discard PowerPoint and use other tools, you must not allow anyone else to lecture in PowerPoint. This may seem absolute, but allowing the old method will weaken the current plan.

Bold design

We use different words to make sentences, paragraphs, and then use them to express our ideas; Similarly, we can and should use different visualization methods to accomplish different communication goals. For example, here are three completely different ways to show the current and target values. Same information, different expression methods.

One of the advantages of emerging visualization tools such as Tableau is that they can easily be converted from one visual method to another through one click. There is also a challenge here. You want to maintain a unified approach to communication throughout your organization. To set and define the use of each visualization method, no one will create their own "favorite" version. This also helps to improve efficiency because the team does not need to replicate the standardization effort.

Have you ever been forced to "misuse the pie chart"? Are you unable to achieve efficient visualization because of fear of change (or your organization's fear of change)? In training (see 1: Visual Training), you will learn the best practices and basics of visualization. Back then, you might have said to yourself, "It's impossible!" "Or you are already cheering for it." You will not become possible.

Management and colleagues will see you as a visual leader. Use a visualization method and then let yourself be free to envision an Exchange method that delivers the target message in a clear and persuasive way. It's a step in the way of personal growth and a step forward for the entire organization. There may be some risk here, but it can also be viewed directly as a new proposal for open discussion.

After getting feedback, be confident about the new technology and don't rush to explain your choices. Understand the underlying causes in a consultative way. To figure out all the questions and why. Your innovation in the product will be a big jump in the way the organization works over the years.

IT reports

You must discard the term "it report". The reality is that it is not willing to make reports, and business people do not want it to make reports, and the final report itself is less valuable than those independent information that is not directly related to the policy. Because the solution is not to directly prohibit people from mentioning these words, so your behavior must be contagious. If you take my previous advice and have the IT staff and business people participate in visual software training, it's a good start.

You might ask yourself: "Since business people will connect data, perform analytics and create visualizations, why does IT need to take part in software training?" "Unlike before, it was a coexistence and interdependent relationship between the IT staff and the business people." IT staff will be able to deliver better data products after understanding how business people use the data-especially those that may affect database and church business users manipulating data (rather than directly telling them what the data means or how to run the analysis).

Remember, although business people want to manipulate data, they are often reluctant to participate in the creation of data or metadata. For IT staff, they must understand how the business operates and how to make decisions in a consulting way. It's not about asking what data they need. Only the more people understand the business, the company will benefit from it.

Tell a Story

You probably already know what a story is, and maybe it's going to be faster than big data. The concept of storytelling predates any business intelligence (BI) tool, so why is it hot now? Visualization naturally triggers the storytelling process because it helps people understand the hidden meaning of a large amount of data. In addition, the efficient storytelling process is fluent, and writing fluent PowerPoint slides is difficult. The interactive nature of the visual software allows you to easily implement shape actions with visual controls. I'll come back later and talk about this.

Storytelling really needs to be communicated clearly--because visual software can easily produce a large number of graphs. If there is no environment or goal to drive visualization, the result is like rambling conversation, and the audience will soon lose interest. Like the other 11 steps, telling a good story takes time and practice. Here are some tips for beginners:

Write an outline before you create a prototype and really make a visualization. Add a title to each dashboard and add a caption to each of the dashboard's visual elements. This helps to embody the thrust of the story. You can't just make a series of visual elements and then think about how to connect them together. These titles will produce a decision or answer a question that removes the generic headings that are used only to describe the data.

This approach creates a completely different storyline--which allows you to produce completely different visual elements. In many cases, you will find that the decision-driven headline requires processing larger data, much more than the size of the data needed to make a chart for a single reference point, such as sales or profit.

Now it's the hardest part of storytelling, but it's also the most important part-accept the facts. Because of the long operation time, some organizations (and people) have already faced the challenge of massive data. You will learn about the beliefs and assumptions in the company that will shake the long term. The way organizations choose to solve new problems depends on many factors. I often say to clients that they need enough confidence and guts to trigger meaningful change. And you think visualization will produce better results ...

Session

Every good story has a conflict (a new problem) and a final solution (decision, action). Of course, there are many dramatic ways to resolve conflicts. In a business environment, we usually resolve conflicts through dialogue-a real test of courage. But at work, we always try to avoid conflict. Be sure not to underestimate the opportunity to lead organizational change.

The visual story you create must not be isolated; Narrating things doesn't mean just reading the full text on the film. Ask the audience, listen to their voices, and learn how they react to the story. I am not saying that we should agree, but that listening to multiple viewpoints will enrich the conversation.

These skills must be practiced in practice and may allow people to find their most satisfying methods beyond these 11 points. I am here to make this point, and I hope you will integrate it into your strategy and organizational planning, instead of using these techniques when you need to change in the future. This is an interesting point of view. If you can't finish a story at a meeting, you'll need to send a snapshot image, including a voice/video recording. It may be a standalone message, or a screenshot taken when reading the material. To invite others to record a response instead of sending an e-mail message directly.

Interactivity

A session usually produces an ending or adds a few rounds to the story. Before management agrees to make a decision, you need to dig deeper into the dots or answer all the new questions. Interaction can unfold the storyline, support the established links, handle some unexpected plot transitions, and thus contribute to the development of the conversation. I think the interaction of visual software has 2 meanings: a The data filtering characteristic, lets the information emerge, then changes the visual element in a way;

Characteristics

When telling a story, you have to get involved and straighten out the plot. Think carefully about how others might react to the story, and then support the plots with visual elements. I don't recommend opening all the filters directly on the data points, or piling up all the information on the screen. Be sure to consider your method carefully. Then you have to work with different filters and information to check if the story is complete, clear the gist, and avoid an unexpected plot (in breadth). It's like listening to the lecture again, and there's an old saying: "Just wait for failure without getting ready." Similarly, the change of organization is not mainly in visualization, but in the ecosystem of decision-making activities. The work process is very different-it's exciting!

Simple and easy to use

In the meeting, you will not want to hear this again: "Come back to the part you said before." "Software allows everyone access to data, allowing people to generate new ideas in real time." This new synergy creates an environmental orientation of action and responsibility, which has a significant impact on the organization. This is a radioactive shift-you may encounter some resistance. According to human nature, people are certainly unwilling to show their performance or team performance on the big screen. In order to reduce resistance, it is important to keep the conversation focused on solving problems or achieving specific results. Those who produce negative results will eventually accept the opportunity to create a transition story of their own.

Open

Have you ever heard of a business intelligence buzzword-democratization of data? For some outside companies, it's hard to believe that data is managed by a central management entity. However, in fact most organizations are controlling the flow of data and providing data access only in ways that are needed. But why not everyone in the company needs to know the business?

In addition, as long as you have the necessary special data access programming skills, today's software can provide a simple database connection. You can't stop the change; you need to plan to increase the openness of the data. I'm not saying that you should make all the data available to everyone at once. In many ways, this is meaningless, such as security, system performance, and so on. However, consider limiting exceptions only, while keeping in mind that data stored in the database is worthless.

I want to add a more complex point: data openness is actually a democratization of the decision-making process. By getting more people to access data better and faster, you can organize more people together to produce decisions better and faster-a powerful concept that will change the organization. A common controversy with this concept is that people do not know how to use data correctly. If this is the case, then the organization needs to focus on and devote resources to ensuring that everyone understands their work and business correctly.

Speed

Most software development work is done in a sequential (waterfall) process. If you know some highly efficient companies, such as Amazon, Google, and Facebook, you know they're using agile and precise methods. We also use these concepts to process data and visualize data. If you continue to follow the same old methods and allow the original organizational problems, then even if the new software can improve a certain speed, you still can not achieve greater change.

Fear of making mistakes allows organizations to devote a significant amount of time to defining and reviewing detailed and complex BI requirements before they can determine their completeness and correctness. However, this way of working is meaningless, as demand is always changing, as the external environment may change and there is no guarantee that everyone will be able to do their job correctly, and people's ideas are constantly changing.

It's best to start with a small number of requirements and then iterate through the development. By using agile development technology to quickly develop a product that helps people analyze data and visualize data, some of the most important new concepts emerge first. And, since we don't need to dig too much into the detail specification, we're more likely to change direction so that we don't have to give up a big investment when we're having a major problem. Don't be forced to make major changes. Start with a small project to test the water to see what works and which are not. Also pay close attention to the results of interactions with new methods-both good results and bad results.

Lifecycle Management

BI also has a lot of demons. All the dashboards and reports you create are in great danger! How much of the data do you use each week? If it's not 100%, then you need to change. Has your company been developing a product that nobody cares about? Of course not. Do not produce those useless products.

Do you think the word "product" has some strange. I purposely use this term in order to change the way you and other people think. BI is often treated as a cost center. But we have to make it into a source of value. Having a product concept first is a good start. To manage the product suite, we have to determine whether the product can create value and meet expectations. You are already in BI-this is a good tone! Here are some of the starting points you can use in your organization.

Purchase: How many people use each report?

Repeat purchase: How many people use a single report more than once?

Conversion: How many percent of user access to specific data will continue digging deeper?

ROI: What actions are based on reports, and what results do they produce?

Customer focus

Embrace customers-don't call them users, internal customers or partners. The word customer is important because it allows you to think about your expectations and experience from the customer's perspective. In addition to getting a good product, getting and retaining customers can have two important effects on your ability: support and sales.

For support, there are simple things you can do, such as having all the members of the BI team access a master support Inbox and then replying to any questions in the way they like. This inbox is also a good way to collect new ideas from customers, and they can also contact their customers directly to better understand their needs. Incorporate these new ideas into the agile product development cycle, letting people know that their ideas have been implemented-even using their names to command new features!

Training is another important aspect of support. You might create a stunning dashboard, but don't assume that customers know how to use it to analyze data. It is likely that many customers have never done a real analysis; Most customers are accustomed to looking at various charts and expect to find something valuable from them. Some of the training methods available for reference are: Making a video, presenting an analysis example from a different user's perspective; hosting a lunch study session (everyone likes a free lunch); building an internal user group.

The so-called sales, I mean you can't just "give up after delivery". You have to keep in touch with the customer. Imagine the way the company is contacting you, and then contact the customer in the same way. There is no need to plan for too large a scope or to create complex systems. Take a deep look at some new ideas and find the best way to do it. For example, create a dashboard that shows all the metrics that are being tracked-and then provide it to everyone.

Establish an action plan

We have introduced 4 other aspects-each of which corresponds to a visualization that affects the dynamics of the organization and the working relationship. The success of the IT team and the business team is more closely related than ever before. Build your storytelling skills and turn yourself into a decision-driven talent. Encourage conversations, then practice, practice, and practice. Finally, interactivity provides the basis for creating multiple scenarios and truly adopting a synergistic approach.

You are likely to attend other trainings. Sit down with the management and have a good interview, and let everyone agree on how they communicate--and make sure they do. Finally, help your organization set up your own rules of the game, and then start experiencing the effects of visualization.

(Responsible editor: Lvguang)