Opening the Black Box
Stakeholders have always wanted to see inside
As anyone who has worked in Business Intelligence or Analytics will tell you, it’s worth clarifying what a stakeholder wants before answering their question.
They may ask you something like: “Can you pull revenue by marketing channel for last week (please)?”
What does ‘revenue’ mean? It’s a simple term, but most organisations have many definitions of revenue. Does it include refunds? Is it before or after promo codes are applied?
What does marketing channel mean? Is it the same as utm_channel, or is it some higher grouping?
What does ‘last week’ mean? This may seem straightforward but, in data terms, it’s relative to some specific field like order_created_timestamp, order_shipped_date, payment_received_timestamp… Which one should it be?
Typically, an analyst will repeat the stakeholder’s question back to them: “So I’m going to pull Gross Merchandise Value net of refunds with promo codes applied, by UTM channel, where the order was created last week, OK?”
This allows the stakeholder to not only better understand what they will receive, but also clarify their request. They may say “I don’t want promo codes applied to the revenue” or they may say “By last week, I mean by when we received the payment”.
By gathering requirements up front, stakeholders feel more confident with the answers they receive and analysts do less work, which is faster and more efficient. Analysts also display their knowledge of the business this way and will be more trusted.
Delphi now repeats back the user’s question, using terms that exist in the semantic layer. The user can then accept the response or ask for changes. 🦾
We think this is so important to do when users ask Delphi questions; opening the black box will both inspire trust and give a better answer.
If you are unfamiliar with Delphi, please check out my blog post below which covers what Delphi is and why we are taking it forward as a company: