Human beings rely on information for survival. Being able to process the world around us and make sense of the data we observe is kind of what sets us apart from other animals. Most species don't try to make sense of their surroundings, they just deal with them. We ponder what the hell is going on and try to change it. And this aspect of our nature also makes us easy to fool.
Business intelligence is dead-boring to normal people.
Simon Dingle, contributor, ITWeb
For one, people like to think that if they've seen a graphic representation of information, they now understand what it is telling them. They know. Or do they?
Information can be deceiving. It might only be telling you part of a story. And in business, it could lead to some terrible decision-making. For a great book on the subject, check out Dan Ariely's famous, and gracefully ageing, Predictably Irrational, which shows how we aren't always able to understand the information we're presented with - even when we think we do.
Do the math
Ariely uses one example of our instincts surrounding information that can fool us, with the following question: “If a bat and a ball cost $1.10 in total, and the bat costs $1 more than the ball, how much does the ball cost?”
The ball costs 5c. The bat costs $1.05. Obvious, once the answer is revealed - or if the question is filled in with extra information, which guides the reader to the right frame of mind to answer.
I often think of this example and others when considering the business intelligence systems that so many organisations rely on for executive decision-making.
The modern business intelligence dashboard, now also making its way onto iPad screens around the world, can be deceiving. You think because you can see the scorecards and pretty charts, complete with touch controls, that you know what is going on in your operations. Unfortunately, it is seldom that simple - generally speaking, you need to drill down into the numbers for them to be meaningful, and that can't really be done at a glance.
Don't be fooled
Infographics are great for quick overviews, direct correlations and Venn diagrams of overlapping fields - a personal favourite - but they can be deceptive when you're looking at business metrics.
A great book of infographics is Information is Beautiful by David McCandless - the man who is probably guilty for all the pretty charts that now flood the pages of magazines.
McCandless' graphics are striking and effective because they represent simple information. I don't mean simple in what they are telling us or how that information was compiled, but rather simple in their facets or layers. He is also brilliant at designing them cleverly - you don't get people like McCandless working for enterprise application vendors, apparently.
And that's because business intelligence is dead-boring to normal people. The conversations about CRM, ERP and BI are tedious. All the companies in the space do the same thing, with ridiculous, jargon-riddled reasons for why the way they do it is special.
But you need the information they facilitate, whether you like it or not.
I recently discussed this with David Ives from iSPartners - a company currently changing its name to Karabina - who says he regularly sees examples of how customers really need deeper insights into their information.
According to Ives, executives think in grids. They were taught in Excel. They understand that way of looking at information, even if it's boring.
It's when drilling down into information, says Ives, that difficult questions such as “who is stealing my stock?” and “why isn't this division performing?” can be answered.
“People want details. And if you aren't taking snapshots of every data-point, every day, you don't get those details. Not really,” he says.
That data has to incorporate not only what the business itself is doing, but also what its partners and customers are doing. Looking at an iPad screen filled with pretty graphics might be reassuring, but it doesn't mean you really know what's going on - unless you combine it with more than that.
So the next time you're presented with a gorgeous chart of information flowing by, consider what it's really telling you. The true story might require more questioning - and even a boring spreadsheet - to reveal.
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