Your Dashboard Can't Do Anything
Your BI tools can display information beautifully, but they can't act on it. That's why everyone still exports to Excel. Here's what's changing.
Dec 2, 2025 Read →
Rethinking Self-Service
Analytics for humans
Most analytics platforms are built to win procurement battles, not to help the people who use them every day. This is my attempt at a better way.
About
Mat Hughes
Analytics Strategist helping you replace Tableaumodernize Alteryximplement AI that worksescape vendor lock-inbuild decision-centric toolsarchitect BI 3.0
I've spent the last decade helping Fortune 500 companies figure out why their analytics investments aren't paying off—evaluating platforms, building training programs, and designing embedded analytics systems that people actually want to use.
These days I'm focused on what comes after the dashboard era—decision-centric tools that serve the people using them, not just the people who signed the contract.
Full Profile →Field Notes
Thinking on analytics modernization, convivial technology, and building tools that serve communities.
The Premise
"Convivial tools are those which give each person who uses them the greatest opportunity to enrich the environment with the fruits of his or her vision." — Ivan Illich
A convivial tool is like a kitchen—ingredients, surfaces, heat. You decide what to make. You develop skill. You understand your ingredients because you've handled them directly.
Most analytics platforms are vending machines. Pre-packaged reports behind glass. Press B7, get what the designer decided you should want. When the vendor controls what questions are askable, they're not giving you analytics—they're giving you their conclusions wearing your data's clothes. This site is about finding the kitchens.
What I Look For
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Enable, don't replace — The goal is much more with people, not the same with fewer
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Serve the user, not just the buyer — The person using the tool daily matters more than the person who signed the contract
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Design the system, not just the tool — Software lives inside organizational context; a brilliant tool in a broken process just accelerates dysfunction