The Data Culture

Playbook
How your organization can achieve more
with a data-first mindset
The Data Culture Playbook

Contents Introduction:
Measuring the business impact of Data Culture 3

How to use this playbook 5

Chapter 1:
Align leadership metrics to business priorities 6

Chapter 2:
Build data sources to address critical decision points 7

Chapter 3:
Grow value through targeted use cases 8

Chapter 4:
Promote widespread data discovery 9

Conclusion:
Future-proofing your organization for whatever comes next 10

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The Data Culture Playbook

Introduction:

Measuring the business

impact of Data Culture

Data is no longer just a competitive advantage, Challenges from unexpected crises reveal that agile, strategic use of data greatly impacts
an organization’s ability to respond to market changes. But getting the most out of your
it is critical to the health—and often the data requires more than just technology. It requires a commitment to promote data-driven
decision making at every level, based on a defined analytics strategy that connects technical
survival—of an organization. This playbook deployments with business objectives, processes, and people.

Despite the trillions of dollars invested in data and analytics in recent years, leaders are
is intended for executives and data leaders still unable to create a data-driven culture and deliver on their investments.

who want to realize the full value of their According to a NewVantage Partners’ 2021 Big Data and AI Executive Survey

organization’s data by building a Data Culture comprised of 85 Fortune 1000 firms

where every individual is equipped to tackle

even the most complex business challenges
using analytical insights.
49 % 39 % 30 %

agree that the Chief Data/Analytics Officer manage data as a business asset, have a well-articulated data
has the primary responsibility for data, a decrease from 50% strategy for their company

but 25% still report there is

no single point of accountability
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3
The Data Culture Playbook

Ongoing global crises and economic downturns exacerbate these Data-leading executives, who use and understand the power of data,
failures to realize data’s value and remind us that businesses need share behaviors and mindset:

to cultivate behaviors and mindsets that support a Data Culture—a

shared mission to put data at the heart of every decision. Feeling
the importance of analytics, companies want to urgently unlock
insights to become data-driven.
83 % 87 % 74 %

Even before the pandemic, data-driven businesses were reaping benefits as top performers. Tableau commissioned market
intelligence firm IDC to conduct a study* to assess the impact of Data Culture on business outcomes. Surveying global business of CEOs want a data-driven of CXOs prioritize becoming of leaders require data in
leaders across industries, including financial services, healthcare, government, etc., IDC examined how culture contributes to the organization an intelligent enterprise decision making

success of data-leading businesses—those with strong Data Cultures—identifying trends that set them apart.
Creating a Data Culture may seem daunting,
Data Culture Provides Rich Dividends even in the best of times. It takes a commitment Are you leading with data?
from every level of the organization to influence
% of organizations seeing improvement

Find out by asking team members

how people think about and act on data insights. these questions:

But the reality is, you can take incremental steps • Do people know how to interpret data?
• Can people get help from colleagues with
to build these capabilities now, knowing that
analytics or data-related questions?
the action you take has a monumental impact: • Do we give people access to the data they need?
You’ll be able to execute and scale analytics and • Are people accountable for the data they access

Data-aware Data-adopting Data-mature Data-leading

business strategies, unlocking your data’s value in and create?
• Do we require data to support decisions?
the near- and long-term.
n=1,100, Source: IDC, 2021

Compared with just 5.7% of respondents from data-aware companies—those with the least mature Data Cultures—an average of
Is your organization using Tableau? If so, then you have access to resources to support your Data Culture journey with Tableau
73.5% of respondents in data-leading companies said that their decision making was always data-driven. And data-leading executives
Blueprint. Blueprint is the most comprehensive methodology for becoming a data-driven organization. LEARN MORE
are eight times more likely to actively use data themselves compared with leaders from data-aware businesses.

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The Data Culture Playbook

How to use this playbook

This playbook lays out a simple, but effective roadmap for building a Data Culture.
It contains four chapters, each with a specific focus area.

For each area, we outline how to make it happen—recommendations on how to build, run, and when you’re ready, expand and
mature these capabilities.

Building Running Expanding

Foundational steps that make it possible Programs and activities that create Actions to optimize and future-proof your
to derive value from data. measurable value across an organization. data efforts for years to come.

Keep in mind that Data Culture isn’t linear—it’s a living organism that continuously evolves. We urge you to take a
Are you responsible for scaling Tableau across the enterprise? Explore the proven, repeatable processes outlined in
phased approach that makes sense for your organization’s goals and needs. The steps in this playbook can be executed Tableau Blueprint. Across Governance, Agility, Proficiency, and Community, apply concrete plans, recommendations,
and repeated, both as a Data Culture comes to life and after it is thriving. and guidelines step-by-step. LEARN MORE

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The Data Culture Playbook

Chapter 1:

Align leadership metrics

to business priorities

Goal: Making it happen:

Leaders from across the organization determine Building: Running: Expanding:
where the organization should be focusing Create a data leadership committee Develop data to support guiding Redeploy and focus data resources Abercrombie &
resources around data, as they align on business accountable for executing strategy metrics at the leadership level, on the most urgent and high- Fitch creates
and driving value with data. Include composed of a few high-level data potential projects. Don’t be shy about
goals and strategic objectives. alignment with
stakeholders across the business and sources and visualizations to foster discontinuing long-standing efforts
analytics functions. a shared source of truth. if they aren’t serving pressing needs.
real-time data
What it looks like: Abercrombie & Fitch uses near
Assess current analytics use Analyze metrics against historical Assign executive sponsors to real-time data to guide a quarterly
Leadership-defined strategies and buy-in ensure that individual leaders are and prioritize the highest-value performance to understand how monitor metrics at the senior levels alignment meeting between executives,
all working toward the same goals and assigning data resources to areas business problems that should the business is fairing relative of the organization to ensure early business group leaders, and product

that have the biggest impact. Agile organizations assess and re-evaluate teams. These quick insights help
be the focus for data-driven to past business conditions warning of successes and failures
leaders map out goals, align on intent,
key priorities as conditions shift and learnings arise, keeping long-term transformation. and current forecasts. and continue to refine.
and determine where they want to
goals in sight. focus their efforts.

Start with an audit of organization-wide data use, reviewing the current Define a set of key guiding metrics Track metrics on a regular cadence Expand visibility into metrics
READ MORE
state against strategic initiatives, desired outcomes, and priorities. To to understand the health of the against expected performance to through regular, organization-wide

understand how the business is performing against priorities, a data business, using at most, 10 key promptly identify unexpected trends communications so executives

leadership committee creates a key set of metrics and works with the indicators. and proactively address business regularly evangelize strategic use

right people—typically an analyst team—to locate, create, and align data challenges. of data.

sources to support these metrics. In this stage, data sources help provide a
snapshot view at the leadership level. Ideally, these sources are updated on
a regular basis so leaders can define expectations on how a metric should Building a data-driven business requires embedding data across organizations and bringing data to all types of decision making. The Data Leadership Collaborative
perform. This affects how you prioritize more in-depth data sources for connects like-minded leaders to learn from and help one another succeed on their Data Culture journey. LEARN MORE
later analyses.
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The Data Culture Playbook

Chapter 2:

Build data sources to address

critical decision points

Goal: Making it happen:

Business metrics guide prioritization of data Building: Running: Expanding:
efforts and teams build data sources to address Identify a few key business Identify or build a few key data Measure the ROI of business
the most critical business questions. processes that impact strategic sources that closely align to key improvements by analyzing the Monitoring
metrics to identify areas of focus for decision points. As you deepen impact on strategic metrics.
market recovery
new and adapted data sources. analysis, you may want to expand
your level of detail. Share your successes and learnings
at the world’s
busiest airport
What it looks like: Recruit a tiger team with data in meetings, one-on-ones, and
owners, business stakeholders, and Prioritize and execute performance reviews to ensure
Data owners and business owners form a “tiger team,” or a cross-functional Dubai Airports uses data to drive
process experts to run a decision experiments to achieve incremental that contributors are rewarded and
team dedicated to tackling a specific issue, that works together to identify or decisions around key experiences
point pilot for each of the top improvements, adjusting one factor, acknowledged for their efforts. and systems—from check-in queue
create key data sources with a direct impact on organization-wide metrics.
identified business problems. assessing the impact, and repeating. times to flight arrivals and departures.
Ensure that these data sources align to one or multiple parts of a business
Document learnings and This strategic approach allowed them
process. For example, say one priority is customer growth. The data source to monitor market recovery, facilities
Audit data use at the project level, Identify drivers of better opportunities for new data from
might include information around engagement or the customer journey. reopening, and passenger confidence
led by the tiger team, to identify performance by looking at changes the process changes and share with
related to COVID-19.
existing data sources, determine in factors and the impact on other teams who could benefit from
Next, identify critical decision points—points where you choose to start, stop, READ MORE
relevance, and identify gaps in business success. Remember to look or adapt the same data.
continue, or change aspects of your approach. Use your data sources to inform
knowledge. upstream for leading indicators of
these points, explore and model potential outcomes, and measure the impact.
improvement.
For example, did efforts to optimize the customer journey result in higher
website engagement and product trials? One data source can help you optimize
many decision points before moving onto the next business process. This work
For executives using Tableau to drive strategic outcomes, understand the roles and responsibilities of the cross-functional project or “tiger” team dedicated
sets you up for success before building out data assets that will be used across
to planning and managing your analytics deployment, defining Tableau governance processes, policies, and more. LEARN MORE
the entire organization.
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The Data Culture Playbook

Chapter 3:

Grow value through

targeted use cases

Goal: Making it happen:

Create immediate value and engagement for Building: Running: Expanding:
priority use cases, sharing key data insights Identify subject matter experts in Create purpose-built data assets Incorporate data assets into
through dashboards and data visualizations. each department that can provide like interactive visualizations, employees’ existing workflows
Generating
quick feedback and ensure that addressing key business processes and applications by setting up
data and analytics teams have the and decision points. Focus on email subscriptions, chat alerts,
organic
business context they need approachability, tailoring assets or embedding in workflow excitement and
What it looks like: to develop data assets. to specific audiences. applications like your CRM. trust at Red Hat
Create use cases aligned to priority areas to encourage interaction with Identify use cases where teams Bring data assets into important Search for and incorporate Red Hat’s Enterprise Data and Analytics

data. These use cases take the form of data assets—visualizations, team developed key performance
could benefit from access to key meetings with stakeholders, new data into data sources and
dashboards, working closely with
reports, dashboards, and/or workbooks—that are useful, engaging, and data sources and engage the tiger executives, and board members dashboards that support predictive
business leaders across all functional
offer insights to help solve immediate business needs. Teams across the team to address specific needs. to encourage data-based approaches and prescriptive analytics for areas. This created synergy and trust
organization can evolve these assets to suit their own needs and identify to prevailing views and to showcase more advanced use cases. that grew their data community and
other areas that could benefit from additional data assets or data sources. Outline requirements for data executive sponsorship. tripled their Tableau user base.

As these assets evolve, ensure that teams refer back to the definitions assets to determine if you need Support development of data READ MORE
outlined in leadership metrics, so everyone is speaking the same language. supplemental data to make them Launch programmatic efforts knowledge by adding definitions,
Share victories and patterns of success to help create a virtuous cycle that relevant to other audiences. and assign champions to offer explanations, notes, and metadata
expands and deepens engagement across the organization. Ensure customized metrics and support and coaching through to data assets, gathering feedback
dimensions can be mapped back formal meetings or informal from users along the way.
to a standardized definition. communications like chat groups
or company portals.

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The Data Culture Playbook

Chapter 4:

Promote widespread
data discovery

Goal: Making it happen:

People at all levels have the confidence and the Building: Running: Expanding:
knowledge to follow the data discovery cycle on their Prioritize collaboration in department- Focus on enabling rather than creating Formulate a method and a repository
own with as little intermediation as possible and level goals and initiatives, empowering content by expanding training initiatives. to capture learnings, such as an internal

then use data insights to drive business decisions. individuals at every level of the organization Open opportunities for all skill levels portal or Wiki, and allocate employee
JPMorgan Chase
to own decisions in their purview and take to build confidence and data literacy. time to this function.
action based on data. Provide relevant examples so people can get
prioritizes
community and
What it looks like: up to speed quickly. Document leading practices for
Expand data exploration by data discovery to capture successful data literacy
Once people are confident with data, they will want to ask richer questions making data sets and assets available Institute community-building programs like methods and to provide inspiration to
and create new data assets for themselves. In practice, this means To deepen engagement across a
through a common BI platform, with lunch-and-learns, others. Actively maintain these practices
30,000-person community, JPMorgan
that data must be well-described, well-governed, and accessible. It also governance that balances empowerment user groups, or competitions that and refine as your Data Culture develops.
Chase used a gamified structure with
requires widespread data literacy—the ability to explore, understand, and and control. Enable ad-hoc analysis through set the stage for larger programs. People skill belts that guide people through
communicate with data. At this stage, organizations benefit from data access to natural language and visual can ask questions, get help, and increase Publicly identify and celebrate data different levels of data training
literacy training programs to teach fundamental data skills. Fostering analytics tools. their data skills. champions and reward them through depending on their experience.

community programs gives people a dedicated space to ask questions, promotion cycles, career growth, WATCH NOW
share best practices, and encourage engagement. At the beginning, Start innovation and problem- solving Invest in robust data lineage, the key to and leadership opportunities. As
these programs don’t have to be large efforts. They can take place where initiatives like data competitions to propose sharing data and building trust. Use your BI Data Culture develops, consider formal
conversations are already happening, and as engagement grows, you can new hypotheses that challenge established platform to identify and address data quality data leadership roles.
formalize efforts with dedicated owners, leaders, and processes. notions about how the business works. issues in sources with the highest usage.

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The Data Culture Playbook

Conclusion:

Future-proofing Ongoing challenges and economic downturns are widening the gap between
the leaders and the laggards: those who are actively embedding data and Additional resources

your organization analytics into the fabric of their company culture and those who are hesitant
to invest in the programs and the technology that help them get there.
for data leaders

for whatever Data-leading organizations pivot when necessary, innovate constantly, and
refine consistently, giving them a distinct competitive advantage in times of

comes next
Five Trends of Data Culture
both stability and change.
Dig into the trends that separate
Creating a Data Culture isn’t a matter of flipping a light switch. Now is the time to make incremental changes, top performers from the rest.
starting with your workforce. Build out focus areas that lay the foundation for individuals and teams to
expand their use of data. Taking these steps helps you move in the right direction, future-proofing your Data LEARN MORE

Culture for whatever lies ahead.

The Tableau Platform: Flexible technology that supports a scalable Data Culture Data Leadership Collaborative
Tableau is the world’s leading analytics platform. Powerful, secure, and flexible, the Tableau platform Join like-minded leaders helping

is designed for the individual and scaled for the enterprise. As a trusted advisor to the world’s largest one another create data-driven
organizations.
organizations—including Honeywell, Charles Schwab, Verizon, Nissan, Lufthansa, and many more—Tableau
helps customers successfully establish a culture of data built on trust and a strategic commitment to data.
LEARN MORE

Looking to accelerate your Data Culture?

We wrote the Blueprint.
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Learn how senior leaders build a
based on the expertise of thousands of customers
Data Culture with Tableau.
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strategy—or zoom in on a specific area to fine-tune
and improve.

Source: IDC Whitepaper, sponsored by Tableau, How Data Culture Fuels Business Value In Data-Driven Organizations, Doc. #Us47605621, May 2021. 10
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