22-25 April 2026 
From Dashboards to Decisions: Building Data Systems That Deliver Real Value
Proposed session for SQLBits 2026TL; DR
Most data platforms stop at dashboards, leaving humans to interpret charts, chase issues, and make decisions after value has already been lost.
Session Details
Most of us didn’t get into data so we could build dashboards that no one acts on.
Yet in many organisations, that’s exactly where our work stops. Charts look good. Reports go out. And the business still asks the same question the next week:
So, what should we actually do
In this session, I’ll share what I’ve learned from working with real operational data in healthcare, retail, and business intelligence environments, where decisions are time-sensitive, messy, and made by people who don’t have the luxury of analysing charts all day.
We’ll explore how to design data systems that don’t just explain the past, but help people make better decisions in the moment. Using familiar SQL-based pipelines and real examples, I’ll show how small design choices, what you model, what you surface, and how you frame outputs, can be the difference between data that gets ignored and data that actually changes behaviour.
We’ll talk honestly about why many BI and analytics projects fail to deliver value, even when the data is “right”, and how factors like timing, workload, trust, and human behaviour matter just as much as technical accuracy.
This is not a talk about tools or frameworks. It’s a practical, experience-led session about building data systems that people actually use, and that genuinely help organisations make better decisions.
Yet in many organisations, that’s exactly where our work stops. Charts look good. Reports go out. And the business still asks the same question the next week:
So, what should we actually do
In this session, I’ll share what I’ve learned from working with real operational data in healthcare, retail, and business intelligence environments, where decisions are time-sensitive, messy, and made by people who don’t have the luxury of analysing charts all day.
We’ll explore how to design data systems that don’t just explain the past, but help people make better decisions in the moment. Using familiar SQL-based pipelines and real examples, I’ll show how small design choices, what you model, what you surface, and how you frame outputs, can be the difference between data that gets ignored and data that actually changes behaviour.
We’ll talk honestly about why many BI and analytics projects fail to deliver value, even when the data is “right”, and how factors like timing, workload, trust, and human behaviour matter just as much as technical accuracy.
This is not a talk about tools or frameworks. It’s a practical, experience-led session about building data systems that people actually use, and that genuinely help organisations make better decisions.
3 things you'll get out of this session
1. Understand why dashboards alone rarely lead to better business decisions
2. Learn how to design decision-ready data models using SQL and operational data
3. See real examples of turning analytics outputs into actions stakeholders actually use