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From Chart to Chat
Why Data Storytelling Begins Before the Dashboard
Transforming how business teams access, trust, and converse with their data
The Journey
I've always loved storytelling with data.
There's something powerful about taking rows and columns and turning them into a story people can see, a moment where the numbers make sense. But over the years, I've also seen the other side of that story. I've seen dashboards become so overloaded with metrics that they stop being useful. I've seen business users give up on projects that were supposed to transform how they work. And I've seen how the overemphasis on visualization, without fixing data access or governance first, quietly derails transformation efforts across entire organizations.
When Dashboards Become the Problem
In theory, dashboards are the window to a data-driven business. In reality, they often become the wall.
Most dashboards are built after the hard part, data access, trust, and governance, has been glossed over. By the time the visuals appear, the cracks are already showing.
I've worked on projects where we spent months designing the perfect dashboard, only to watch the enthusiasm fade once the business teams realised the data wasn't what they expected, or worse, that it couldn't be trusted.
That story isn't unique to me. Recent studies confirm what many of us in data already know:
The Evidence
40%
A 2024 survey of over 200 SaaS leaders found that 40% say their dashboards don't support decision-making, while 37% report that the data presented isn't clear or actionable (Luzmo 2024).
Visual Noise
Another report described dashboards as "visual noise" when they try to show everything instead of focusing on clarity (Medium 2024).
Data Zoo
A UK market analysis found that dashboards often turn into a "data zoo", a collection of disconnected KPIs that users struggle to interpret (Market Research UK, 2024)
So when business leaders finally see the finished product, they often ask the same question I've heard countless times:
"This looks nice… but what does it actually mean?"
That's when you know the project has missed its mark.
The Real Issue: Access and Trust
The problem isn't visualization, it's foundation. When the underlying data is inaccessible or untrusted, no chart, however beautiful, can save the story.
Many organizations still rely on engineering-heavy pipelines and manual governance processes. By the time data makes it into a dashboard, it's often out of date, inconsistent, or misunderstood.
As an article in arXiv notes, dashboard projects frequently fail because "user literacy doesn't match the tool demands" and because requirements "shift faster than design cycles can adapt" ((arixiv.org, 2023).
I've lived that frustration, watching data teams burn out whilst business users lose faith. And I wanted to change it.
The Solution
Empowering Business Teams with Latttice
That's why I'm so passionate about what we've built with Latttice.
Latttice finally solves the root problem: data access and governance. It gives business teams direct, governed access to trusted data, without waiting on engineers or IT.
Using AI, business users can create and manage their own data products, connecting directly to their live sources, Snowflake, BigQuery, spreadsheets, CRM systems, and more. It's zero-code, instant, and secure.
The Result:
Business users get the answers they need.
Data teams can focus on strategy, not service tickets.
And most importantly, trust returns.
When teams see data they can trust, available whenever they need it, they start believing again. They make faster decisions, ask smarter questions, and use data as it was always meant to be used: confidently.
From Chart to Chat, The Next Leap
and now, I'm even more excited about what's next: LattticeGPT, our ChatGPT-powered plugin.
This is where the story evolves from chart to chat.
For years, analytics ended in dashboards. Now, it begins with conversation.
Instead of interpreting someone else's chart, leaders can ask their own questions directly:
"Why did our sales dip in Q3?"
"Which region contributed most to revenue growth last month?"
LattticeGPT connects to the governed data products and provides contextual, transparent answers, not guesses, not static visuals.
The Industry Shift
This aligns with where the industry is heading. Reports from Sigma Computing and Cambium AI both describe how analytics is moving towards conversational interfaces, where users "ask questions in natural language" and receive contextual responses rather than navigating dashboards (Sigma Computing, 2024) and (Cambium AI, 2024).

Lumi AI sums it up best:
"Traditional dashboards rely on pre-built visuals. Conversational analytics lets you type, 'What were our sales last week?' and get the answer instantly." (Lumi AI, 2024).
That's exactly what we've created with LattticeGPT. You don't have to see the data to understand it, you can just ask.
Why It Matters
I've spent my career in data storytelling, turning complexity into clarity. But what I've learned is that the story begins long before the chart.
It starts with access. It grows with trust. And it flourishes through conversation.
I've watched countless transformation projects fail because visualization came before understanding. With Latttice, we've changed that order.
Now, business users have what they've always needed: trusted data, instant context, and the ability to simply ask.
The future isn't about staring at more dashboards. It's about talking directly to your data.
From chart to chat, that's where data finally speaks your language. And I couldn't be more excited to be part of building that future.
Join a Data Conversation,
Jessie Moelzer.
See LattticeGPT in Action
Discover how LattticeGPT revolutionises data interaction. This video discusses how natural language queries provide instant, contextual answers directly from your trusted data products, eliminating the need for complex dashboards. Empower your team to get the insights they need, precisely when they need them.
References:
  1. Luzmo (2024). Dashboards: Dead, Dying, or Evolving?
  1. Medium (2024). Why Most Business Dashboards Fail and How to Fix Them.
  1. Market Research UK (2024). The Real Reason Most Data Dashboards Fail to Drive Business Action.
  1. arXiv (2023). Data Quality, Mismatched Expectations, and Moving Requirements: The Challenges of User-Centred Dashboard Design.
  1. Lumi AI (2024). Conversational Analytics vs Traditional BI Dashboards.
  1. Sigma Computing (2024). The Future Sounds a Lot Like You: Conversational Analytics.
  1. Cambium AI (2024). Beyond the Dashboard: Why the Future of Data is Conversational.