The other day my wife asked me to send her mother some information.  Her mom wanted to visit our son at college and was trying to figure out a date.  My son’s availability is limited this semester.  He has several trips home and we will be going to visit him for parents’ weekend.

My wife wanted me to send a list of the dates that my son was not available.  At first glance, this request seemed reasonable enough.  After all, her mother needed to figure out when she could visit.  However, as I thought about it, I realized that this was the wrong information to send.

While this information would help her mother make the decision, it wasn’t efficient. Her mother couldn’t use this information directly.  Before making the decision, she would have to transform it into the data that she really needed – the dates that my son was available.  Converting a list of unavailable dates to a list of available dates isn’t a hard task.  However it’s unnecessary when I could have provided the right data in the first place.

This is a common mistake that people make with data.  The data that they request or provide falls short of answering the actual question.  As a result, the person using the report has to further transform the data before making their decision.  Whether that process is simple or difficult isn’t really the point.  The point is that it is not efficient or effective.  People’s time is best used interpreting and acting upon data, not converting or relabeling it.

For example, suppose that you are trying to figure out which regions in your business need your attention and resources. A typical scorecard would include a list of regions, their current performance, their goal, and possibly some historic performance data.  That seems reasonable enough.  You certainly can use it to make your decision.  However, it isn’t efficient.  You still have to look at every line of the report (e.g., every region) and convert the performance data into the real information that you want – an assessment of whether that region is doing well or poorly.  Color-coding the report with red, yellow, and green indicators helps a little.  However, it doesn’t prevent you from having to look at each line (it just shortens the amount of time you spend on each line).  Instead, if your decision is where to focus your attention, a better report would simply list the names of the regions that are having problem.  The detailed report can be used later when it’s time to drill down to better understand the problem.

The best data and reports are those that are closely aligned to the decision being made.  Count the number of steps it takes between receiving the report and making the decision.  If that number is greater than zero, rethink the report.  There may be an opportunity to present the data in a more efficient and effective manner.