Ten Mistakes to Avoid in Data Visualization
TDWI Member Exclusive
February 5, 2021
Do any of the following sound familiar?
You brought in reporting software but the quality of your reports has not improved.
You have a great selection of reports available but few people are using them.
Your business users prefer to build their own reports in Excel rather than use those created by the IT department.
Your business users still feel dissatisfied by reports despite projects to implement their requirements.
All of these are symptoms that your reporting strategy isn’t working. An advanced reporting strategy needs to walk users down a path from viewing the high-level data to getting the details they need to fixing issues or improving processes. The reports need to tell a story of what is happening, what must be improved, and how to make that improvement. Visualizations are linked in a chain leading from understanding the current state of your business to taking action to improve it.
Unfortunately, most organizations have dead-end reporting; a report may show an insight but stops at that point. There is no logical progression from that insight towards the deeper understanding and action needed to create a positive business outcome.
This report contains both a framework to understand the components of a data reporting strategy and a list of mistakes that interrupt the path from data to business ROI.