Integrating KPI Glossaries into Your Databases is a Game-Changer!

In the latest episode of The Sensemaker’s Video Podcast, Actionaut Robert Rouse drops something of a bombshell. He proposes the idea of embedding Key Performance Indicator (KPI) definitions directly into your databases to support business logic transparency and simplify calculations end-to-end.

Robert writes on LinkedIn:

“…[S]everal years ago, when a client specified a KPI dashboard design that I foresaw as unmaintainable and would produce a poor experience for them, I proposed a radically different approach that later became a career-defining idea: how should we structure and visualize KPIs across a large organization?

This video covers a foundational part of the solution born out of that experience and later refinements. My colleagues Keith Helfrich and Jonathan Drummey add their insights…”

In the video, Action’s Founder and Managing Director, Keith Helfrich, shares a quote from Bethany Lyons (Chief Product Officer, Kawa Analytics) that is keenly relevant to this discussion:

“The ability for technical people to understand business problems is not the most important communication gap to bridge. The ability for business people to articulate their problems in a way that is interesting to technical people is the most important communication problem to solve. Why? Many of the best engineers want to solve their own problems. They want to build software for other engineers. Whoever can convince those engineers to build software for business users will take the whole market.”

This video is part of an ongoing series covering “Everyday Design Practices” in Tableau. Follow the entire series here.