Data Demystified: Holistic Thinking

Every day I scan my feed and find the same themes hashed over and over.  What makes a successful data team?  How to structure your data function based on headcount.  Data management and data governance are different things.

The one thing that I find in common with all of these posts is they have role-based bias.  People whose point of view is looking at data through a lens of the roles they typically perform.  The changes or structure they propose makes their jobs easier, or gives them more of a say in how things go.

Moreover, in almost all cases, the data function is implicitly seen as being driven by the technology function of their organization.

I call this binary thinking.  Malcolm Hawker identifies it as an "all or nothing", limiting mindset.  Either way, I offer a more holistic, less deterministic, alternative.  There are an infinite number of paths businesses can take to improve the data function from where it stands in its current state.  We just need to find the one that's right for you in the moment.

I wrestle with binary thinking myself.  In my About Me section's last draft, I make the pompous statement:

 "I offer nothing less than sweeping culture change when it comes to your relationship and ownership of your data."

Like I said, it's a draft and will be gone by the time I publish this article.

Building a data function is a journey from chaos and ambiguity into clarity and purpose.  A long one sometimes.  Someone like me isn't going to just walk in, wave a magic wand, and make your company data-driven or data-literate.  It will take targeted conversations about the problems you face in the present and the ideal state you envision for the future.

My objective out of the gate would be to help whomever hires me to do two simple things.

First, develop a working definition of your vision for a data function.  What problems will it solve?  What business outcomes will it support?

Second, within that working definition, define the role of the leader of that function.  What is their expected scope of accountability?  To whom will they report?  What kind of budget and resources will they be given to execute on the vision?

What do I bring to the table?  Holistic thinking.  I don't have a dog in the fight.  No agenda.  No easy button or standard formula to sell you.  Just a view of the data function and leadership born from thirty-plus years of working in the field in various roles.  A solid understanding of what doesn't work and faith in business leaders to know when opportunities exist - and when they don't.

Here are my foundational principles:

• A data function is a business function and needs to be separated from IT strategy and objectives.
• A data leader is a business leader whose primary objective should be to generate revenue from data generated from business operations - or at the very least, be able to tie data initiatives to financial impact.
• Product thinking should dominate the data function.  Data as an administrative, cost center only, function only perpetuates limiting mindsets.
• The phrase data governance should disappear from the organization's vocabulary, except in cases where regulatory compliance dictates otherwise.  This should be a natural result of implementing product-oriented thinking.

These principles, if embraced, can start an organization down a path to increased profitability and competitive advantage.  If your leadership believes that their data can be leveraged in this manner, but is frustrated by poor outcomes and lost opportunities from the current state - I'd love to try and help.

If you're convinced that all you need is better platforms, experienced technologists who "understand" AI, or a faster path to that one dashboard that will tell you everything you need to know - you're probably not ready for what I have to offer. All those things are great, but only when subservient to the business vision and leadership foundation.

However, I also realize that we have to meet where you are right now.  I have no desire to disrupt whatever momentum you might have developed, but I'm likely going to ask you to shift your focus away from efforts to continuously improve processes that don't work, have never worked, and never will work.  Instead, let's chart a course that defines the function, its leadership, and a roadmap that will preserve and engage the good work while steadily transforming to a future state that continuously delivers value and effectively impacts your business outcomes.

It's not all-or-nothing, it's "Yes, and…".