Socrates in the Boardroom: Why BI Needs Better Questions

We’ve all sat in meetings where a dashboard gets pulled up, the numbers are walked through, and someone nods and says, “Looks good, let’s keep going.” And maybe it does look good. The KPIs are green, the trend lines are rising, and the visuals are sharp.

It’s those meetings I find myself wondering…are we actually thinking?

Not reacting. Not reporting. But thinking – strategically, critically, contextually.

That’s what first pulled me into the world of philosophy years ago, and more recently, what’s drawn me back to it through the lens of Business Intelligence. Because while I work with data for a living, I’ve come to believe that the real value in BI doesn’t come from having the right numbers on a screen – it comes from the questions those numbers provoke.

And no one asked better questions than Socrates.

The Original Analyst

Socrates never wrote anything down, which is strangely fitting. He wasn’t interested in publishing conclusions – he was interested in helping people think. He would walk through the marketplace, corner people with strong opinions, and ask a simple but disarming question: “How do you know that?”

Not to embarrass them. But to test the strength of their reasoning. To reveal what was assumed or taken for granted. He’d then keep digging until something real was uncovered, often by the speaker themselves when they couldn’t back up their own reasoning.

I think that if Socrates were around today and happened to find himself caught up in the world of business. He’d be sitting quietly at the back of a boardroom, watching someone present a quarterly dashboard, and then asking:

·       “What led you to define performance this way?”

·       “Why this segment, not that one?”

·       “What would you expect to see if your interpretation were true?”

And honestly? That’s the kind of voice I think we could use more of in today’s BI conversations.

The Problem with Answers That End the Conversation

Most dashboards are designed to answer questions in a definitive way. They’re taught to define the business need, choose the right metrics, visualise them clearly, and make them easy to scan. We’ve all got accustomed to this answer-driven format too.

But I’m beginning to think that when a dashboard is too neat, too confident, too ready with an answer, it can shut down the exact kind of thinking we need in complex situations. I know Socrates would be sceptical!

There’s no room for uncertainty. No encouragement to pause. No invitation to wonder whether something important might be missing from the picture.

Business is a fast-moving environment where decisions often carry risk, and this surface-level clarity can mask real vulnerability. Because what we don't ask can sometimes hurt us more than what we get wrong.

BI as a Thinking Tool, Not Just a Reporting Layer

The more I reflect on it, the more I think BI needs to make space for something we don’t talk about enough: doubt.

Not in the sense of paralysis or second-guessing, but in the philosophical sense, the kind of doubt that sharpens thinking. Meaningful doubt that clears away noise, exposes where the real tensions or trade-offs are hiding. And no, this doesn’t mean turning dashboards into academic exercises or endless rumination devices.

Dashboards should just encourage a bit more mental movement, to nudge users into asking:

·       What story are we telling here?

·       What aren’t we showing?

·       What assumptions are baked into this view?

·       Is there another way to see this?

I don’t think these are nice-to-have questions. I think they’re strategic ones.

A Different Kind of Data Culture

We spend a lot of time in analytics talking about “data-driven decision making.” But if we’re being honest, what we often mean is data-justified decision making. where the dashboard comes in at the end to support a call that’s already been made.

What would happen if we flipped that?

If we started using dashboards earlier in the thinking process, to shape conclusions rather than just validate them? If we treated data not as proof, but as dialogue?

That’s the kind of BI culture I’m interested in building. One where dashboards spark conversation, metrics are framed with purpose and questions aren’t seen as signs of indecision, but of good leadership.

Why This Matters

It’s an exciting time to be involved in analytics, with AI tools like Copilot, ChatGPT and Gemini…it’s easier than ever to pull insights, generate charts, and automate analysis.

But what AI doesn’t do well, at least not yet, is think for us. It doesn’t know which questions matter in each context. It doesn’t understand what your team’s really struggling with, or what trade-offs your business is facing. And it certainly hasn’t grasped the concept of doubting itself. That’s still a human job.

And it’s why I believe the future of BI isn’t just technical, it’s philosophical.

We need better data, yes. But more than that, we need better thinking. And that starts with better questions.