The most important test: Accuracy

Today's blog is short and sweet and highlights a very important lesson:
The importance of Accuracy.

One of our customers had asked us to come in to redo their reporting system. In order to map out the journey of this project, we had the specifications of where we were headed but I needed to know where we were. I asked to see their existing reports so at the very outset, the existing functionality would be provided as a minimum starting point.

What I saw were some rather funky looking reports, charts, pivot tables that provided all sorts of information on operations and sales. My first question was: "What in this needs replacing? It seems fine just the way it is!".

The marketing manager then told me that while the reports were very pretty and functionally fine, they were of absolutely no value to him because he knew for a fact that the measures shown were wrong. I could not agree more. In yet another reporting system, all he got was text-based information that he could export to Excel, which is where he did most of his analysis. The problem with this was that for every supplier / brand / product parameter he entered, the system would churn away for about 10 - 15 minutes then bring him back a list of records, which he said he could trust for accuracy. Then he donned his short-swords, katana, throwing stars, exported the data to a spreadsheet, then morphed into an Excel-ninja to get the information he really needed to make marketing decisions.

So the main point of this exercise is to highlight a hierarchy of report-consumer needs when developing a system of reports, dashboards, charts, scorecards. The solution created needs to pass these tests, in this order:

1. Accurate
2. Fast
3. Pretty

There is no sense moving from one to the next without passing the grade, kind of like moving through year levels in various curricula.

• If the solution is not accurate (in fact it's not even a solution then), nobody cares how fast or pretty it is, it will not be used.
• If it is accurate but slow, the solution will only be used as a desperate measure, kind of like having to visit the dentist every so often (we know we need to, but it almost becomes a mission of its own to get it over with). You get the picture!
  
• Once the solution is accurate, fast and pretty / easy-to-use, only at this stage can we realistically expect any sort of uptake.

That's it for today. Be awesome! Change your world!