No more PPT, a great data analysis report template

In the business world, data analysis reports are an important basis for decision-making, but how to write a report that is both attractive and in-depth is an art. The ideas and scenarios for writing reports shared in this article are very helpful to everyone in the workplace.

Many students have similar problems: they work hard to write a data analysis report, but no one reads it! If you give a data analysis report in person, you will find that within 10 minutes at most, these guys will take out their phones and play with them happily.

Why?!

This has to start with how the report is written.

There are two modes of data analysis reports: you ask me and I answer, and I say and you listen. If you ask me and I answer, then we answer the questions raised by the other party, and naturally we get a lot of attention. At this time, it is not that no one reads the report, but that people pick on it. For the you ask me and I answer type report, see the previous article: How to write an excellent data analysis report!

The reports that no one reads are often "I say, you listen" type reports. Yes, those sales/product/operation daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, semi-annual, and annual reports that consume the most energy but are the least popular.

Today we will share with you how to deal with this situation. Suppose the report data you need to process is as follows. After reading it, think about it for a minute: How can you report it so that others are willing to listen?

01 Tips to get others to listen

The cruel truth is: data is important, and many people need to look at data every day, but data is only a small part of their work. Therefore, most of the time, people just look at it and don’t take it seriously.

It's like going to the toilet. Going to the toilet is very important. We do need to go to the toilet every day. It's really frustrating when we can't find a toilet when we are in a hurry, but you never care about the details of the toilet. If you go to the toilet and someone stands next to you and says to you, "Today's toilet paper is 150 sheets, 50% more than yesterday", you will definitely have no interest in listening, and you probably won't even be able to defecate.

unless……

Unless he said, "The toilet's shithole has exploded! Don't go in there!", then 100% of people will listen to him! And he has to say it before you go in. Otherwise, when you push the door and see such a magnificent scene, you will be so angry that you will curse and probably call the property management company's phone to death.

The same secret applies to getting others to listen to your report: talk about things that people care about and reduce meaningless chatter.

In short, there are four scenarios that people will definitely listen to:

1. When you first arrive at an office building, the property management will introduce you to the office: There are two toilets here, a small one on the left with fewer toilets, and the other one on the right, but you have to walk to the end. Since you are new here, it is no problem to explain it in such detail, which will make you feel that the service is very good.

2. If there is a problem with the toilet, such as the toilet pit bursting, you should put up a big "No Trespassing" sign at the door as soon as possible before everyone else. If someone rushes over, you can still say, "You can go to the toilet on the second floor first, same location", and they will surely be so happy and grateful.

3. The toilet is fine. You don't need to stand at the door and complain. Just put up a sign saying: Clean and available. Let everyone see it.

4. The property management will come to understand the toilet operation. You can write about it in detail at this time, because the property management is responsible for this matter. If there is a problem, report the problem. If there is no problem, you must also make it clear: this month, the toilet has been operating without any problems for 30 days, the use of toilet paper has decreased by 30%, and the number of complaints has decreased by 20%. The person in charge always likes to hear this.

SO, all the tips are here, let’s see how to apply them in the enterprise.

02 Four key reporting scenarios

If you want to make proactive reports and get people to listen, you need to grasp four scenarios.

Scene 1: First report

(See the example above) All reports have their first appearance. Although this report will appear many times in the future, no one has ever seen it before today. So you have to explain the basic situation of the previous 10 days.

Here there is an indicator (performance) and three dimensions (week, day, product type). Therefore, when talking about the overview, we should talk about it from the whole to the details, one dimension at a time. At the beginning, it is okay to be a little verbose, because everyone knows nothing. If you say too little, people will feel confused. It can be expressed as the following figure.

Scenario 2: Safe and sound report

When it comes to daily reporting, many newcomers will habitually write a lot of information like on the 11th. Some bureaucratic companies will even pass down this format for several years. The final result is naturally that no one reads it. Why? Because starting from the 12th, it has become a routine update, and the subsequent data trends actually look similar to the previous ones.

If you keep talking a lot at this time, it will be like an old lady who always yells at you to "stop playing with your phone" and "get up and exercise", so there is no need to be long-winded. Just write: The daily performance on the 12th was 500, no abnormalities. That's it. Isn't it like the night watchman in the costume drama, shouting: The sky is high and the air is dry, be careful of fire, everything is safe, duang! duangduang! ... That's the feeling.

Don't laugh. Being safe and sound is also something to report. Because good and bad are relative, if you can clearly identify what is good, you can find out what is bad. Setting up a clear benchmark is very useful for judging the situation.

Scenario 3: Problem reporting

Everyone knows to report when something goes wrong, but the question is: how do we know when something goes wrong? As shown in the figure below, we all know that something went wrong this week, but at what point should we speak out and how should we speak out?

Common key points and shouting methods can be as follows:

After reading it, many students said, "Wow, there are so many tips when you encounter problems." It is true. The more tense the situation is, the more data support is needed. At this time, there is no such thing as too much. Most conventional reports are like thermometers: they can indicate problems but cannot solve them. So when you find problems, don't limit yourself to an Excel sheet. It is important to actively expand your work.

When encountering problems, the business department doesn’t want to hear nonsense like “dropping 50%” or “dropping to 300”. What they want to hear most is:

• What can I do?
• How much can I invest?
• How much should I do?

Therefore, even if risks are pointed out, it is necessary to add some details. For details, please refer to the example above.

Scenario 4: Summary report

Note: For summary reports, who is responsible and who cares, so it is not necessary to make all summaries long and detailed. When making a summary report, first set the tone, for example, do we want to express "well done" or "there are problems". Once the general tone is set, the details will be easy to determine:

03 Necessary basic homework

After understanding the four major scenarios, we found that simply looking at the data is not enough to make a good report. More work needs to be done before the data comes out. For example:

• Understand the business background
• Understand business objectives
• Identify the person you want to communicate with
• Know in advance how much he knows about the data/situation
• Have basic judgment on data
• Have a certain understanding of the problem
• In-depth research on important issues

This is the only way to ensure that you can attract the audience as soon as you open your mouth, instead of just saying "year-on-year...year-on-year...month-on-month...month-on-month" like a cuckoo.

Of course, different audiences have different focuses when listening to reports. For example, bosses, middle-level managers, and front-line employees have obvious differences; technical backgrounds are different from business backgrounds, and decision-making styles also have an impact. However, these are the icing on the cake after doing a good job of basic work. New students still have to start with the basics, and we will share them slowly later.