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Episode Summary

“Good analytics really starts with empathy. It’s truly the heart of good design. It’s caring and having the right conversations with the right people.”

— Brian O'Neill

Design. User Experience. Knowing your audience. Empathizing with your end user.

These are such critical facets of getting analytics right in your organization. If you don’t pay attention to what your constituents want and need, you’ll build something amazing, but it wont’ get the adoption you should. Low adoption means people aren’t using the data you worked so hard to produce.

Data visualization and data storytelling are certainly part of the answer. But it’s only part. A well crafted data viz tells a story, but if nobody wants to read it, then was it really a good viz in the first place?

Brian O'Neill knows a little bit about this problem. He is a product designer and founder of the consultancy, Designing for Analytics, which provides design and UX consulting for custom enterprise data products and apps. For over 20 years, he has worked with companies including DELL/EMC, Tripadvisor, Fidelity, NetApp, MITRE, JP Morgan Chase, ETrade and numerous SAAS startups. Today Brian focuses on helping clients create more useful, usable, profitable, and engaging decision support software and information products. In addition to consulting, Brian is also an international speaker and podcast guest, having appeared at multiple O'Reilly Strata conferences, Predictive Analytics World in Berlin, and on the IBM Analytics podcast, Making Data Simple. He also authored the Designing for Analytics Self-Assessment Guide for Non-Designers, maintains an active mailing list, and hosts the podcast, Experiencing Data. Earlier in 2018, Brian joined the International Institute for Analytics' Expert Network as an advisor on design and UX.

A fun fact about Brian? He’s a musician by training! He is a professional percussionist in Boston. He tours internationally and has performed at Carnegie Hall and The Kennedy Center