Presenting Business Intelligence

At CAN we spend a lot of time developing better ways to present and communicate our ideas, because our systems only produce results if people understand how to use our insights. Presenting business intelligence is based on the business question, the audience and what is important. The following is an explanation of how we decide how to present:

Select a Business Question

We start every project by defining the business question to be answered.  We do not worry about what techniques or methodology we are going to use to answer the questions.  Instead, we determine what is the most important question to be edited.  We only start a project once our client is able to answer “What question, if answered, would have the largest impact on your business in the next 6 months?”. (Related Post on ROI)

Select an Audience

Who you are presenting to determines what information you present and in what order.  There are three presentation styles, but they depend on who you are talking to.  The graphic above outlines each presentation.
When presenting to generalists you want to start with the conclusion and then explain how you reached that conclusions.  By starting with the conclusion, you provide generalists, who are typically decision makers, a filter to understand and develop questions during the rest of your presentation.
When presenting to experts, you want to start your presentation by providing background information, and then explain step by step how you reached your final conclusion.  This is useful because the experts want to know that you know what you are talking about, and presenting background information before you reach conclusions will help you establish trust with the experts.

Justify Each Element

The best presentations start on time, end early and leave plenty of time for questions.  The key to success is to curate your presentation by justifying the existence of each sentence, graph and data table. If you can not provide a good explanation for something you included in your presentation, you must take it out.

Focus on Results

After a successful presentation, your audience will know exactly what the next step is; who they need to call, what they need to buy and what they need to do.  If there is no clear action they must take after hearing your presentation, then your research and presentation have been wasted.
Learn how you can use business intelligence to make data-driven decisions.