Want Better Business Visualizations? Turn Your Stakeholders Into Collaborators
Overview
Had you told me that four years ago that I would ever advocate building a dashboard by committee I would have said you were crazy. I was convinced that business data visualization was a “me only” activity and I should only surface when I had questions about the data.
I’ve completely changed my thinking on this as I make better visualizations working with others than I would if I were to develop them entirely on my own.
And they are not only better. I can make them faster, too.
Let me share a case study, a workshop epiphany, and some insights on why the allies won World War II.
Note: what follows applies to business data visualizations. Infographics are a completely different story.
A Case Study
Several years ago, Troy Magennis, president of Focused Objective, called me out to ask me if I would help him train and help build embedded dashboards for a Nashville-based client. Troy is an expert in software development modeling and probabilistic forecasting. Apparently, Troy found me on the Tableau Zen Master page and thought that I would gel with the firm (my picture at the time showed me playing a Fender Precision Bass).
