Damned if you do damned if you dont

[adolf hamster]

Just wondering what folk do when they encounter this phenominon in the workplace, i'll use the analagy of food mostly because im hungry;

You produce cheese on toast, present to colleague

Colleague doesnt like it, "its too complicated, give me just bread, but make it taste like cheese on toast"

You reply "cant be done, cant make bread taste like cheese on toast, otherwise it'd be cheese on toast, which incidentally is what i just gave you"

Colleague; "of course it can be done, dont be stupid, just do this" then shows a picture of cheese on toast with sun dried tomatoes, parsely and worcester sauce.

You go away, come back and present a slice of bread

Colleague "where's the cheese?"

You "on the cheese on toast i gave you originally"

Colleague "yes but that was too complicated, all i want is bloody cheese on toast!"


Are people just incapable of understanding things unless its made themselves or reduced to a big green box on a spreadsheet with a tick in it?

How do you present high level data to people who will always then proceed to ask for more details then complain when you give it to them that its too much information?

 

[adolf hamster]

This is appropriate:

honestly this is better than my cheese on toast example.

it's to do with charts, i do a test, i make a chart to show the important data.

first chart i do is just the maximum value of the output variable (the bread)

"but what's the input variable at that output variable?"

i put the input variable on, superimposed, clearly showing the correlation, but there's such a massive difference in the numbers i have to use a second axis (the cheese)

cue first meltdown, 2 axis on a chart!? that's too complicated

i explain why there are 2 axis on the chart

"so whats the output when the input is x value?"

i put the output at X on the chart. (this is the grilled cheese on toast)

cue second meltdown, with demonstrations of "simple" charts that are in reality the equivalent of cheese on toast with sundried tomatoes parsely and worcester sauce. followed by a lecture of having to pitch high level data to customers.

my issue here is that if i pitch high level data [bread] i get asked for mid level data, if i pitch mid level data [cheese on toast] it's too complicated. the people i'm actually reporting to are the ones who need mid level data and ask mid level questions, so god forbid i should provide them with that they want.

 

[adolf hamster]

I learnt a long time ago it's all about how you put it across.

It can be exactly what they want and they'll say no, baffle them with BS and they'll want it.

it seems to be a common theme in this place 'summarise this massive series of data sets into one spreadsheet, make sure everything's in there, oh and make it simple'

it's not rocket science that there's only so much 'data compression' you can do in terms of representing information without losing detail.

 

[adolf hamster]

I give them both:

-Ask them questions to clarify the requirement and what they plan to do with the data when it is available, what 'business questions' they will want to use it to answer etc
-Ensure you have a low enough grain of data available to support questions asking for more detail (even if you don't plan to present it)
-Aggregate or otherwise summarise the data into a high-level presentable format
-Ideally provide some sort of interactive/drilldown capability that allows the user to go from high-level to low-level
-Use an iterative feedback loop to refine your outputs rather than relying on getting it right first time

The first is tricky, as their answer is always to provide everything but "make it simple"

This is the usual mid level, averages of batches rather than actual results, there is more data in the test this is just a summary of the 3 most important series of averages.

Interaction is a no go, these people freak out at a chart with 2 axes, i'd hate to see the meltdown if i provided a pivot table or other such mechanisms, although the way the data is laid out it's the traditional summary page, project plan, and then raw data tabs colour coded to the summary and sorted by test type

This is something that gets done often, i think i'm going to sit them down tomorrow and get this sorted in a standardised way as we've got the test methodology down pat only stands to reason we should get the data presentation sorted.

What they want is a chart they can copy paste into a presentation and send to customers, and of course not being customer facing in any way i haven't a baldy what the customers want/need to know or how they want it presented, that's the whole point of me reporting into folk who's job it is to do that

 

[adolf hamster]

Charging by the hour is tempting, one day.....

Managed to get it sorted once they finally realised its at the core a personal preference issue rather than a technical one.