Data Driven
Few would argue today that it will be absolutely important for every organisation to become data driven to survive and thrive in the digital era. It’s important though to understand what being “Data Driven” will mean. Leveraging data to drive digital transformation can be a daunting proposition. In many ways you’ll need to rethink what you do, why you do it and how you do it. Doing more with data will disrupt much of what you’re grown comfortable with.
Most organisations are just starting their journey. We’re all busier than ever getting things done based on where our organisations are at today, never mind having to think about how we need to change for tomorrow. It’s tempting to think your first step (and possibly your only step) is to hire a digital guy or a data scientist. Although that may be a valuable move at the appropriate time, success in becoming Data Driven is going to depend on a number of other things that may not seem that obvious.
In my view, these are some of those…
Culture
Arguably the biggest thing you need to change to leverage data is to change your organisational culture. The over-used phrase that likens data to oil in essence means that your organisation has to become so obsessed about extracting value from data that there is nothing which is not aligned with that imperative. To get to that place, you need a culture that places that imperative on top of every list, and as we know that requires strong leadership and the courage to re-engineer the DNA of the organisation and all its people around it. No decision should be taken, no process completed, no structure in place that does not become saturated in data.
Commitment
You probably weren’t expecting this one, but the reality is we need to understand that data doesn’t do anything on its own unless we commit to and invest in doing something with it. Partners, tools and external services can support, but the onus is on your organisation and your leaders to ensure that your organisation extracts value from data. You can procure a platform or some data insights, you can buy and install some technology, you can pay a consultant for some advice but ultimately if you do not position your organisation to take full advantage of the nascent potential that those investments may provide you will get no return. If you are not committed, you’re best off “leaving your digital oil beneath the soil”. Accept from the start that becoming Data Driven is a permanent change, that requires your urgent but persistent commitment.
Access
It may sound weird, but many organisations don’t have access to the data they own, and even when they do it’s not access that is easy, reliable and agile. Historically when organisations signed an agreement to work with a suppler for a service, that service usually involved some kind of system within which data would be collected, processed or supplied. Unfortunately without a data culture, most often the data wasn’t a real focus, but rather the service was the focus. That’s left us in a position where the data our organisations technically own resides in systems held and managed by others. Even when the data is yours, getting your hands on it can be a very clunky process. So start understanding your data landscape, and taking steps to clean it up and invest in developing pipelines to secure access. You need access to and control over your data so that it can be woven into the fabric of everything you do. You also need to ensure that agreements you enter in future prioritise the data that is implicit in them and gives you control over and autonomous access to that data.
Process
Every process should start with, be intertwined with and end with data. At the start, you consult the data to validate what you should do and how you should do it. Then as you implement the process, project or program you constantly look to data as a way to monitor progress and decide whether and how to refine the process, and finally you lean on data to inform feedback on the outcomes which then generates inputs into the next process or adjacent processes.
Ecosystem
Like oil, data has to flow between locations, between organisations, between supply-chains. The value of data is usually associated with the volume of data you have, and sometimes the velocity (accessibility) of data, but the diversity of data needs to be recognised too. Diverse data comes from different organisations from different sectors, and represents points of validation more accurately describing the potentially intricate nuances of a problem or opportunity and the interdependent drivers involved. This providing decision makers with multiple lenses, through which questions can be asked and answered. So when you’re thinking about what you need to do to become Data Driven, think beyond your team, your department, your business unit and your organisation. Think about the ecosystem within which you currently operate and to the ecosystems which you may participate in at some point in future. It makes no sense to start in a silo and stay there. One of the key facets of the disruption that digital and data are driving is the breaking down of silo’s, so break the down wherever you find them.
Governance
The natural implication of talking an ecosystem-based approach is that you will need to manage priorities within your ecosystems. A governance framework will be an important tool for orchestrating the way your ecosystem collaborates with data to optimise the benefits and manage the friction that potentially computing priorities represent. Governance is important but is an enabler so don’t allow your governance to become the focus. A framework and approach that is agile is better than on that covers every conceivable situation. The governance body needs to be representative of diverse stakeholder interests with democratically appointed senior leaders with clear objectives and short terms to incentivise pragmatism and a focus on getting things done. Form data trusts to provide formal governance agreements where appropriate but ensure the efforts in doing so can be extrapolated to other initiatives, and the scope can be adapted as progress and insights reveal new priorities problems and opportunities.
Tools
Anyone who actually works with data, will tell you that the process is challenging. A Data Driven culture, processes and an ecosystem that are aligned are all important but ultimately you need tools to make accessing, sharing, collaborating and innovation with data easier. Analytics tools are just the beginning. There are a myriad of open-source tools as well as come licensed tools which will be required to interrogate, manipulate, correlate and visualise data. These tools however do not make it much easier to saturate your organisation and your ecosystem with data driven processes. You will need tools and platforms beyond that to enable your organisation and the organisations in your ecosystem to share and collaborate with data in a way that ensures privacy and security but supports the ability of every data owner to control entitlements to their data so that those tools and platforms can be used for every usage scenario from those where data is used internally only to those where it is shared widely. Finally, given the sense of urgency and the need for an ecosystem view, it makes little sense to build tools and platforms yourself unless these do not exist or cannot be sourced from the market in a way that supports the key functions needed. The lessons of the past show that adopting a standard offering with some configurability usually produces a better outcome than insisting on a completely custom or bespoke build.
Skills
Every job role within your organisation will need to interact with data. Leaders and managers will need to know how to “ask questions” that drive your work with data, frame data requirements to enable decisions and interpret insights. Operational people will need to be involved in doing everything from visualisation to formulating operational data imperatives and initiatives and making operational decisions, and technical staff will be analysing data and building engineered data insights and data models. Make sure you invest in the ability to support this at every level. Data literacy is the life-blood of a Data Driven organisation. Mandate data driven processes and the use of tools that support this. Don’t try to own and control everything you need to extract value from data either. Lean on your ecosystem and focus on expanding that ecosystem to effectively get “crowd-sourced” data skills. Bring in trusted partners who can augment your ability to scale in priority areas. Insisting on complete reliance on your own capacity will limit your success as you scale the value you extract from data.
Assets & Infrastructure
Instrument everything! Do not invest in anything that does not produce data, in real or near-real time which is easily accessible and can be integrated across sub-systems and platforms. Collaborate with others in your ecosystem to access operational data beyond the assets and infrastructure that you invest in and create economies of scale. If you invest I assets and infrastructure which may have an operation lifespan of decades, you will significantly impede your ability to be Data Driven.
Trust
Last, but certainly not least, being Data Driven means an uncompromising commitment to garnering and maintaining trust. The way to access, use and collaborate with data cannot ever allow trust to be undermined. That means you need to ensure that you invest in appropriate privacy and security strategies, policies and systems. It also means you need to engage with you customers and constituents to create transparency, elicit input and provide tangible cues to the benefits that being Data Driven can deliver to them.