SHOW ME
How we want to see data
Same database. Same quarter. Two people ask for a report.
Same question. Completely different answer expected.
A decision-maker may want
- One number
- Direction (up or down)
- What to do about it
- Confidence that someone understands the details
An investigator may want
- The query
- The methodology
- Edge cases and caveats
- Confidence that the number is actually right
A person making a quick operational decision may need the result, direction, and next action before the supporting detail.
A person investigating the result may need the query, method, caveats, and source data before deciding whether the conclusion holds.
This isn't a data problem. It's a communication problem. And it shows up everywhere.
Many domains have this split. One audience needs the what. The other needs the how. Neither is wrong. They're solving different problems with the same information.
Most teams build one dashboard and show it to everyone.
The dashboard isn't wrong. The audience is wrong. Same data, wrong encoding for the decoder.
Build two views. One source of truth, two presentations.
The CEO doesn't need to understand the query. The engineer doesn't need to care about the slide deck. But they both need to know the other view exists.
Data doesn't have an opinion about how it's displayed.
Your audience does.