Do you think there might be insights hidden in your data that are waiting to be uncovered, but you’ve just not found them yet? Yes? Well, ThoughtSpot can help uncover those insights using their SpotIQ feature.

Sometimes when looking at data, whether that’s in a chart or a dashboard, you might find an interesting trend or data point which sparks action. Maybe you had a gut-feeling or hypothesis that turned out correct. Sometimes though, these ah-ha moments remain hidden within your data. It can be hard to know what to ask for or which charts to produce if you don’t know what you are trying to find.

That’s where SpotIQ comes in. SpotIQ uses analytical techniques to find trends, outliers and correlations in your data. Each insight is then described via a natural language narrative to explain what you are seeing. With SpotIQ, advanced analytics are only a few clicks away helping you find new insights faster.

ThoughtSpot’s SpotIQ

SpotIQ is a privilege set by the administrator of ThoughtSpot. You do not need any additional licensing, meaning that any users in ThoughtSpot can be granted this privilege.

Once you’ve put your data into ThoughtSpot, you can use SpotIQ straight away. You must first run a search on your data. To start select a measure of interest, run a search and then find the ellipses on the right of the results. If you have the correct privileges, the option “SpotIQ analyze” will be listed.

ThoughtSpot allows you to apply the following analytical techniques:

• Outlier Analysis
  • This identified data points which do not follow the patterns seen with the population data. These could be caused by data errors or natural deviations.
• Trend Analysis
  • Data is analyse over time to spot seasonality and trends.
• Cross-Correlation Analysis
  • Spots the relationship between two variables.

Above: SpotIQ in action.

The SpotIQ analysis will run analyses based on the initial search terms and other columns in the dataset. Users will be prompted to specify the other columns of interest in the subsequent SpotIQ window. It is recommended that the number of measures to compare against is between 3 and 10, but this can be customised if desired.

The SpotIQ feature can be used by business users and analysts alike. For those that want more analytics control, the confidence parameters used in the analysis can be altered. For example, users may want to adjust the P-values and define minimum row numbers used in the analyses.

Once the analytical techniques and columns for analysis have been selected, the analysis can be run. SpotIQ has the ability to analyse millions of rows of data fast, and the analyses should produce a result in only few seconds. Once run, the results are located on a dedicated “SpotIQ” page listed in the navigation panel. By default, each analysis will be stored for 24 hours before they expire. However, they can be saved if you wish, storing the outputs for later use.

How Does SpotIQ Effect Me?

Do we see this replacing the role of data analyst? Personally, I don’t think so. Many organisations have the opportunity to improve data literacy across their organisations, and many individuals are still not comfortable interpreting charts and graphs.

That said, I can definitely see this functionality being used along side dedicated analytics, perhaps providing the first step in a deep-dive into topics of interest. Personally, I find it really useful to quickly explore new datasets. Using this feature, analysts and business users alike will be empowered to find quicker insights. There is definitely the potential for this to make big changes to working practices, particularly as this is not an added extra to your ThoughtSpot’s setup.

Above: More use cases of SpotIQ in use.

If you want to know more about ThoughtSpot or SpotIQ, feel free to reach out!