Reporting consumers are very hungry about the data, the details and the different perspectives they want to have on a single topic. I have not objection on the existence of reports for management, but there is a limit on all of this so we should be focused on the customer and not just doing internal reports.

Back-office employees, do not use to meet the customer, so it’s important to establish a direct link between then and the customer. Ok, you have the software, the products… but in a big organizations you also have people doing management stuff and they do not deliver software, they produce reports. These guys are part of the team, they are part of the E2E value chain delivery and they are part of what your customer see from your company.

Same picture, same feelings, is a sentence I use when I look at the perspective of the reports my customer is receiving. Having the same reports internally and externally ensures me the team is aware of what the customer is seeing, and they react when some trend or data is unusual or out of context.

I do not use to ask for new reports if they are not for my customer. If I find a set of data that can be valuable for the customer, I ask the creation of such report and I send to my customer with a question:

is this type of information valuable for you?

After some months I ask again if receiving that report is valuable or not. If it is not, then I stop sending it (time is gold).

Keep reporting lean and very focused on what your customer wants, this will enable you to react quickly when they want changes, keep overhead costs at minimum, and keep the people generating reports with a clear sense of customer value.

(Den Haag, Netherlands, passion by bikes)