Creating Reports That People Actually Understand
The greatest value of a picture is when it forces us to notice what we never expected to see.
—John Tukey
One of my favorite childhood movies is Minority Report1 where Tom Cruise plays the role of a police officer who is able to use data to apprehend criminals before they commit their crimes. The movie is visually impressive but the image that sticks with me even to this day is when Tom Cruise is operating the crime prediction machine.
This is how I think some companies believe their reports should be. There’s a special room within your office where all the numbers relevant to your company are visible in real time and anyone can come in and access them. We read about “war rooms” earlier ...
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