The next time someone asks you to “pull a report” or “create a dashboard,” don’t do it.

Instead, turn around and ask them: “What decisions are you trying to make?”

You may get a very favorable response from a partner/stakeholder who realizes you’re trying to understand their needs and better help them. You can then spend your time in a more meaningful way: Creating decision-making tools versus pulling or creating reports which may not matter to the business.

Businesses have more data and reporting functionality available to them than ever before. It’s too easy for employees in an organization (especially more junior members) to become “report retrievers” vs. “decision drivers”. What’s the key difference? It’s in the approach you take.

Start with “decision-making needs”, not “reporting needs” and you’ll add more strategic value to your business.

A mind-shift from reports to decision-making tools has implications for:

1. Developers who create reporting apps (and tools within apps): Every use case or user story must include a description of the decision(s) that will be made using the reporting app or tool. You want to design decision-making tools…not just pretty reports and dashboards (those will naturally follow).
2. Business users who create reporting: See above. You know what to do.
3. Business users who request/consume reporting: Take a deep breath. Ask yourself “What decisions do I need to make?” Then articulate your request for reporting as “I am trying to make decisions about […]? What are all the metrics can we pull together into a report or dashboard, related to that type of decision?” This is the right kind of conversation starter with whomever does your analysis, or creates your reports.

Applying this simple idea with discipline will pay big dividends in 3 ways:

1. Better time management
2. Better decision-making
3. Better relationships between ‘requestors’ of reporting and ‘creators’ of reporting

Here’s to driving decisions. Sharp turn ahead.