A Picture Graph is Worth a Thousand Words Spreadsheets

It is hard to understate the value of effective data visualization. It also hard to overstate how easy it is to be tricked (or to trick ourselves) with poorly designed graphics that may not be communicating the true properties of the data. In our work at Dead Reckoning graphical representations of data primarily perform at least one of the following roles: exploratory analysis, data summary, or data-based decision-making. Let’s take each one at a time.

Exploratory analysis

The very first step toward creating a data science solution or a data-driven product is to accurately define the company’s current state of affairs, up to and including recent historical trends that are relevant to the data opportunity at hand. Pattern detection starts here by creating descriptive reports and graphical analyses, socializing them with stakeholders and leveraging their subject matter expertise to build a comprehensive data processing and analytic plan.

Custom Reports

As we work toward a data science production cycle that meets your team’s needs, we can start to produce customized reports tailored to meet the needs of internal or external stakeholders. These reports can take a number of forms and formats including PDFs, slide decks, and even interactive HTML objects.

Dashboards

A close cousin of customized reports, regular monitoring and intermediate analyses can be enhanced with the creation of dashboards. Compared with full-fledged reports, dashboards tend to have a more narrow focus, enabling rapid access to relevant summary information. With additional effort, these dashboards can be converted to fully functioning graphic user interfaces that support a specific capability set.