The Process of Business Communication

recently we've been exploring key
elements of the business intelligence
process we spent some time getting to
know typical bi stakeholders including
the project sponsor systems analyst
developer and general business
stakeholders
now we're going to take that a step
further and consider some important
communication strategies that bi
professionals use when collaborating
with these people
these strategies involve knowing how to
ask the right questions Define project
deliverables and effectively share the
business intelligence to discover
no bi project is 100 clear from the very
beginning so you'll often need to put on
your detective's hat
a critical part of being a bi
professional is knowing how to
investigate what's currently going on
then looking for Clues to better
understand people's needs and ideal
project outcomes
my colleagues and I often note that our
stakeholder partner or Corker might say
they need one thing but what they
actually need is very different and it's
up to us to get to the bottom of it and
help them succeed
in such circumstances having strong
communication skills will enable you to
dig deeper into the problem challenge or
opportunity then identify how you can
approach the issue in the most effective
way
this process starts with asking the
right questions
if you earn the Google data analytics
certificate you spent an entire course
focusing on this ask face of the data
analysis process
as a quick refresher this involves
understanding the difference between
effective and ineffective questions
knowing what types of questions bring
about the best insights enables you to
use questioning to fully understand
stakeholder expectations especially when
what they're asking for is different
from what your professional experience
indicates they require if you're
comfortable with the ask phase continue
to the next part of this lesson or if
you like to review these principles feel
free to do so now
okay after asking the right questions in
order to thoroughly understand the
project it's time to Define project
deliverables a deliverable is any
product service or outcome that must be
achieved in order to complete a project
this could be a new bi dashboard a
report a completed analysis
documentation of a process or decision
pretty much anything requested by
stakeholders can be a deliverable
in bi the most common deliverables are
the dashboards and reports that provide
insights to users
when brainstorming which deliverables to
produce it's helpful to make a list of
the problems to solve challenges to
overcome or opportunities to maximize
then think about the workflow for each
business process involved this helps you
visualize the types of dashboards or
reports that will be most productive how
many are necessary and what specific
elements each of them requires
for example when I'm asked to create a
dashboard I'll grab a piece of paper and
start drawing example charts in a
mock-up then I share them with the users
this helps in two ways first it ensures
my vision of the dashboard is what they
had in mind and second it enables me to
confirm for myself that it all makes
sense
okay now the final step effectively
sharing business intelligence
it's important to know how to make
complicated technical data more
straightforward and accessible for
people who are unfamiliar with the
terminology and systems involved
being able to present intelligence in a
clear and concise manner is fundamental
to making sure that decision makers
understand the insights and can put your
recommendations into practice
also at this point in the process an
essential responsibility of every bi
professional is to consider bias as you
likely know bias is a conscious or
subconscious preference in favor or
against a person group of people or
thing
there are many different types of bias
that can affect a data related project
such as confirmation bias data bias
interpretation bias and Observer Bias
these Concepts were taught in depth in
the Google data analytics certificate so
please review them now if you need to
every project you work on must start
with a focus on fairness which means
that your work doesn't create or
reinforce bias
bi professionals have a lot of power
because we're the ones translating very
technical topics into a simple language
for others it's vital that your
translation is fair after all your team
is trusting you
'll continue building your communication
skills all throughout this program and
in no time you'll be ready to
thoughtfully share even the most complex
bi insights
[Music]
thank you
foreign