Being the guy with the analytical background for most of my career, I’ve often been the person to ask about building a report or two. The challenge, besides figuring out big hairy data problems, is to manage these reporting requests in a way that creates value from data, without burying yourself with requests or creating reporting bloat.
Interestingly, that last bit is the trickiest one. It’s easy to find value in someone’s reporting request and say yes to the work. After all, it has to be important if they’re asking you about it. But the truth is that not all reports are created equal. Some are more meaningful and universally valuable than others. And developing a nose for this will pay off in dividends for any analyst.
The trick to this is properly scoping the request up front. Decide what this report will and won’t do. How the insights will be used. Whether it makes sense as an evergreen report to be used over the long term, or a one-off request. A big part of finding these answers is putting the questions back upon the requester. Why do you need this report? What will you do with this data? How will you disseminate the information? What does this insight change for us?