BI Analytics
Within your D&A Career, you will find several BI Tools.
In the end, its all about: the goal, not…the tools
| Step | Phase | Activity |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Discovery | Understand client needs, goals, challenges, and expectations |
| 2 | Data | Gather and analyze relevant data, perform cleaning and exploration |
| 3 | Hypothesis | Develop initial hypotheses based on client needs and data |
| 4 | Method | Select appropriate analytical methods and tools |
| 5 | Analysis | Perform the analysis, document process and results |
| 6 | Insights | Identify key patterns, trends, and findings |
| 7 | Design | Organize insights into a coherent narrative |
| 8 | Iterate | Share with client, gather feedback, refine |
| 9 | Present | Deliver the final data story with clear visuals |
| 10 | Follow-up | Measure success, determine next steps |
Every KPI should follow the SMART framework:
| Criterion | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Specific | Clear and well-defined goals | “Develop a KPI dashboard for sales” vs “improve analysis” |
| Measurable | Quantifiable metrics or observable outcomes | Track user engagement increase, time saved |
| Achievable | Realistic given resources, skills, and time | Challenging but within reach |
| Relevant | Aligned with business objectives | Direct impact on key business areas |
| Time-bound | Specific deadline or timeframe | “Complete by Q2” creates urgency |
You will be building KPI across Categories:
| Category | Focus | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Financial | Revenue, profitability | Revenue growth, profit margin, ROI |
| Customer | Satisfaction, retention | NPS, churn rate, customer lifetime value |
| Operational | Efficiency, quality | Processing time, error rate, throughput |
| Growth | Expansion, reach | Market share, new customers, lead conversion |
Most popular within enterprises are: all of these are paid products
Sometimes, the OSS BI Tools will come into the picture:
- Grafana
- Others like: Metabase, Redash, Superset…
Normally, these tools go plugged in the final stage of the data pipelines: aka gold
flowchart LR
%% --- Styles ---
classDef bronze fill:#EFEBE9,stroke:#8D6E63,stroke-width:2px,color:#3E2723;
classDef silver fill:#ECEFF1,stroke:#78909C,stroke-width:2px,color:#263238;
classDef gold fill:#FFFDE7,stroke:#FBC02D,stroke-width:2px,color:#F57F17;
classDef ai fill:#F3E5F5,stroke:#8E24AA,stroke-width:2px,stroke-dasharray: 5 5,color:#4A148C;
classDef source fill:#fff,stroke:#333,stroke-width:1px;
%% --- Sources ---
subgraph Sources [Data Sources]
direction TB
Logs[Logs / IoT]:::source
DB[Databases]:::source
APIs[External APIs]:::source
end
%% --- The Lakehouse (Medallion) ---
subgraph Lakehouse [The Data Lakehouse]
direction LR
%% BRONZE: Raw
Bronze[("BRONZE
(Raw Ingestion)
As-is Dump")]:::bronze
%% SILVER: Cleaned
Silver[("SILVER
(Refined)
Cleaned & Enriched")]:::silver
%% GOLD: Aggregated
Gold[("GOLD
(Curated)
Business Aggregates")]:::gold
end
%% --- AI Integration ---
subgraph AI_Lab [AI & Machine Learning]
direction TB
Training(Model Training):::ai
Inference(AI Agents / RAG):::ai
Predictions(Predictions / Tags):::ai
end
%% --- Consumers ---
BI[BI Dashboards
& Reports]:::source
%% --- The Flow ---
Sources --> Bronze
Bronze -- "ETL / Cleaning" --> Silver
Silver -- "Aggregation" --> Gold
Gold --> BI
%% --- Where AI Plugs In ---
%% 1. Training happens on Silver (Granular but clean)
Silver -.->|"Feeds Data"| Training
%% 2. Inference (Agents) read Gold (Context) or Silver (Features)
Gold -.->|"Context for RAG"| Inference
%% 3. The Feedback Loop: Predictions go back into the Lake
Training --> Predictions
Inference --> Predictions
Predictions -.->|"Enrichment"| Silver
Predictions -.->|"New Insights"| GoldDepending on your work environment, you could do fully custom BI proposals.
Custom BI Tools
For a PoC on BI Tools, just go for Streamlit: data centered plus its speed of iterations around a good data model is unmatched
Streamlit PoC Post
Marketing DocsTo build a BI Tools even more custom: with certain UI look and feel, you can try Flask
Flask and Real Time Data
Custom Plots for ReportingOr for stonks:

To create interactivity, we have the well known plotly, but also ApexCharts and ChartJS.

Both can be combined and create some cool graphs within SSGs, like in HUGO components and also provide interactivity via CSR.
You can potentially make embedable BI components that work on websites or just get the full power of web apps when designing these.
You could also use these skills when building funnels during your entrepreneurial journey:
PS Reflex has very cool funnels: https://reflex.dev/docs/library/graphing/charts/funnelchart/
You can also create a quick mermaidJS sankey of on boarding flows.


