Fill in the Blanks Descriptive Analytics Online version Descriptive Analytics by Ray Larkin 1 visualization service product sales performance question Descriptive reports analytics help answer the ? What happened ? ' in all its forms : What were our last quarter or last month or yesterday ? Which customers required the most customer help ? Which had the most defects ? Questions like these form the foundation for a company's entire analytics strategy . For now , regardless of the technology , we need people to ask those initial questions and to set the goals and associated key indicators ( KPIs ) by which the company will be measured and managed . Descriptive analytics are frequently associated with data via , dashboards , and scorecards . Visualizations and intuitive user interfaces that adapt to various types data can help drive effective use of analytics technology . Visualization on its own is only one of several functions of descriptive analytics , as seen in the video at the start of the lesson .