Kathy Herrmann explores the aptitudes of great business intelligence analysts.

1. The makings of a great
business intelligence analyst
March 2013

2. What does it take to be a great
business intelligence analyst?
If you think it’s someone who
just crunches numbers, then
you’re missing the big picture.

3. Great analysts =
Great information explorationists.
These are folks who collect, analyze, and
synthesize information and find the story
behind the numbers and information.
They find new ways to connect sometimes
dissociate facts so they converge and make
sense.

4. So what makes for a great
information explorationist?
Let’s look at their top attributes.

5. Structural thinking
• Ability to visualize in three dimensions.
• Ability to visualize results to facilitate
meaningful and easy understanding by
differing target audiences of
execs, management, and peers.

6. Inductive reasoning
• The ability to sense a unifying
principle running through
miscellany or a gift for synthesis
as compared to analysis.
 Ability to go from specific to
general.
 A gift for diagnosing,
critiquing, evaluating, and
decision-making.
• Seems almost like intuition but
is really high cognitive speed to
process information.
• Ability to go from “what is” to
“what could be.”

7. Analytical reasoning
• The ability to organize
ideas and concepts
without the use of
exhaustive, step-by-step
instructions.
Including finding new ways
to organize data. E.g.,
recognizing a new tree
species in the forest.
• Involves logic and organization.

8. Numerical aptitudes
• Number series aptitudes: The ability to see
meaning in numbers.
Pattern recognition.
• Numbers facility: The ability to do arithmetic
quickly and accurately.
• Number memory: The ability to memorize and
remember a string of numbers.

9. Communication
• The ability to clearly articulate findings to target
audiences of execs, management, and peers.
• Includes the ability to segment messaging for
different target audiences.
 Eg., execs & management want strategic insights
while peers seek creative or process improvement
insight.

10. Who?

11. For other clients, she defines technology requirements that
will heighten business effectiveness.
Kathy Herrmann
builds better businesses.
She propels businesses as a T-shaped pro with vertical
penetration in diverse types of data analysis and horizontal
experience in marketing, sales, customer service, and
operations.
For some clients, she improves business
performance by providing results-focused
data insights into customer activity and
behaviors, or into operational activities.

12. Kathy
Herrmann
571-236-7929
info@kathyherrmann.com
www.kathyherrmann.com
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