Database Reference
In-Depth Information
tools for communicating data says a lot about the complexity of choosing
the right tool for your unique situation.
Ideally, you want to have a small set of data tools that support the variety of
types of data products your organization needs. A single solution is unlikely
to offer the breadth of capabilities necessary. In our experience, four to five
tools for data presentation are usually sufficient for most organizations. The
following table describes a set of tool categories and the specific solution
we've seen work most successfully.
Types of Data Product Development Tools
tyPe
PurPoSe
our choice
Data presentation
Data storytelling with text and images to
provide context to the data visualization
PowerPoint *
Scenario tools and
analyses
Predictive models or other calculations
used to explain how something works
Excel
Data visualizations
Interactive data visualizations to explain a
data analysis
Tableau
Dashboards
Summary of performance in a single
interface
DataHero
Analytical
applications
Interactive data presentation to augment
existing software applications
Fruition
Do it yourself
Charting libraries to create your own dash-
boards and data visualizations
D3.js
* There is a natural cringe-reaction for many people when they think of PowerPoint or Excel as tools
for communicating data. While these tools have their flaws (most notably the encouragement of poor
chart choices), the critiques should focus more on how individual people have misused the tools
rather than the general capabilities of the tools themselves.
There are many forms your data products may take. And for every form, there
are many technology options. However, here are some common features that
are worth evaluating in almost every case:
End-user customization —Some presentations may target a single
audience. This is the exception to the rule. Most often, a data product
goes out into the world alone and is used by many people, each of
whom comes from a unique perspective. Whether it is their depart-
ment, region, or products, all audience members will want to see data
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