A Metaphor That Landed Me a Second Interview

When I interviewed for my current role, I was asked an unconventional question.

Q: What metaphor would you use to describe the components and workings of an effective business intelligence team?

My Answer

Business intelligence is like a novel.

Level 1

• A novel needs paper, ink, a word processor, and a printer.
• A BI team uses hardware and software to collect and organize data.

Level 2

• Novels are filled with symbols (letters) that need to be arranged into words to make sense to the reader.
• A BI team needs to extract, load, and transform raw data so that it makes sense when accessed and analyzed.

Level 3

• In a novel words are arranged into sentences and paragraphs. These structures have rules and help describe characters, settings, and dialog.
• A BI team needs to structure data and integrated it across multiple source systems using business logic and data governance rules to ensure good quality for analysis.

Level 4

• In a novel paragraphs are put together in a meaningful order and separated by chapters so that a story and plot can be followed.
• A BI team creates measures, reports, and visualizations to start building a narrative around an organizational problem or objective.

Level 5

• Novels have themes, motifs, and morals to give the story a deeper meaning that the reader needs to interpret.
• A BI team uses advanced analytical techniques (like statistical modeling and machine learning) to find deeper meaning within an organization's data set and use the insights to predict or prescribe outcomes.

This isn't a perfect metaphor, but I like it. It's easy to understand and better than the often used "data is the new oil" metaphor. It also got me a second interview (and I eventually landed the job).