Smart Insights: How Your Data Point Changed Over Time

Smart Insights can show you how your data point has changed over time.

How Does the Algorithm Work?

What's happening in the background is that Smart Insights performs a live analysis of your selected data point to highlight its most recent interesting changes over time. These changes are selected based on the date dimension hierarchies in your model (quarter/month/year...). Smart Insights uses the percentage variance of the current time period compared to all other historic time periods. The most interesting time hierarchy in the variance chart is also highlighted, so you can focus on the most important elements of your data.
Note

The data point you select must be based on a model that contains at least one date dimension. To get Smart Insights about how the data point has changed over time, you must make sure that the date dimension isn't on one of the axes in your chart.

Smart Insights Panel

If date dimension filters are applied to your data point on either a chart, page or story level, the Smart Insights panel considers these filters when returning information. The information is displayed using a textual insight and a chart. The textual insight describes a significant change Smart Insights has identified in your data over time.

The chart visualizes the changes in the values of your data point for different date dimension hierarchies. The options displayed for date dimension hierarchies in the Smart Insights panel, depend on the date dimension hierarchies in your model. Depending on your model, the potential options are day, week, month, period, quarter, half-year, year.

The chart also shows the variance for the selected time hierarchy.

Exploring Changes to Your Data Point

You can explore changes to your data point. Choose your preferred date dimension hierarchy within the Smart Insights panel.
Example
If you select 'Month' as the time hierarchy, the chart shows a 13-month time range of data point values and matching variance points.
The textual information, however, remains static.
Note
  • The 'How has this changed' data point analysis over time isn't available in the following scenario:

    • working with the calculated measure type Difference From or variance.

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