When you’re building business insights solutions, it is very important that you provide the context behind a metric.  After all, a number without context is just a number with no meaning.  All the reports and dashboards you view everyday probably mean very little because you don’t really understand the narrative behind the numbers.  Just think of the endless dashboards with lots of bar charts and line charts and fancy graphics that actually mean very little if you can’t apply it to business historical context.

As I’m building my next mobile business insights app, it became very important that within a tap, you could get the full narrative behind the numbers posted.  As the author, you can post a quick comment on what is going on with the latest number posted.  By doing this, you keeping everyone on the same page of the playbook.  You don’t have to repeat yourself in 10 emails to you asking what is going on with the number this week.

With another tap, you could quickly get to other related metrics to the metric you are viewing.  Those metrics could be your own private numbers or even link to public metrics like housing starts if you are in the real estate business.  Related metrics is very important because it helps tell a story with a metric.  A metric by itself doesn’t give the whole business picture, usually a metric can be affected by other internal or even external metrics.

How do others feel about this metric?  If it is an important metric, wouldn’t you like to know and share with others?  Once you have access to hundreds of metrics, these important metrics will stand out in a crowded field.

And, you want to know more about the author is contact them.   Again, you are just a tap away from contacting them and getting the answers you need.

Have a great day, Patrick