MM011 – Happy BI Halloween

5 Tips for a BI Manager to survive 365 scary days (not only Oct 31st)

1. Zombies

Probably you have lots of users in your list, but some of them never get in touch with you, even to complain in case of data problems. Find them out and try to look into the matter. Maybe you will find a hidden world of local analytics to embed into your enterprise data hub.

2. Black Magic

Business people must understand what data mean and where they come from, to use them out as a value to support actions. Your BI should not be a sort of “witch’s cauldron” you only know. Be transparent, be patient, be popular. Otherwise, they will become zombies (see above).

3. Trick

Reputation means everything for a BI Manager. Correctness of data and performance of analytical tools mean reputation. No little jokes to your users. Reserve adequate time and effort for managing back end processes and data management.

4. Treat

For users, being understood in terms of analytics issues is like getting candies. Keep the line in terms, at the same time talk, talk, talk with your people, they could be your best sponsors or your worst enemies. Kindness (nearly) always wins.

5. Fear

As a BI & Analytics Manager, your strategy can be defensive: make what they ask, no matter what it means, no matter if they are “reports” of a huge amount of data to be exported somewhere (Excel?). Or, instead, you can be offensive: focus on “why” they are asking that, suggest a clever way, propose another point of view. In a nutshell, think about the added value your work should produce. This means not fear and take a risk. But keep in mind: playing defense is risky as well.