The hallmark qualities of Data are well known – 5 well trodden and known words, in a charming mix of Accuracy, Completeness, Reliability, Relevance and Timeliness… These are old watchwords that have been bandied around Finance People for decades.
Whilst all of these Big 5 are 100% valid guidelines to data, there is another big cornerstone feature of successful data – Accessibility.
Data content has moved at light speed over the past few years. Company payrolls of the last ten years were suddenly flush with Data Scientists and Engineers, in any and all of the Tech Companies, from Berlin to The Bay.
In many cases, the business leaders perhaps didn’t ask the right questions and therefore didn’t send these talented chair dwelling, data miners off in the right direction with their pick axes- to extract those data nuggets.
Everybody knows “Data” is the hot commodity for a company to crave, have and utilise – but not everyone out there knows what to gather, or indeed why they would want or need it OR – how to interpret what comes back, and most crucially of all, how to fix the problems highlighted. These could be anything from – are you targeting the right demographic? Is your price too high? Or, do you spend more to get your customers that they spend on you? Classic.
Notwithstanding the constraints and protectionism around GDPR, there is – simply too much data, and that level of content is moving through at unmanageable volumes, at breakneck speed.
Competition and environment can and does create tremendous pressure, but clearly, the data can help us to determine and derive the strategy – and place and switch the “bets” quickly and decisively.
Using the source data is a key step to preventing others with influence in the organisation from interpreting, misinterpreting and subsequently misdirecting the business resources and focus. We don’t want a lack of clarity taking everyone off in the wrong direction, because they have mis-defined the definition of CAC, or incorrectly segmented the cohorts; misunderstood the definition of an active customer; or overstated attribution on a Marketing campaign…whatever it may be… The more metrics that a company tries to interpret and analyse, the bigger the potential pitfalls that can strike through human error.
Keeping data flying fair and true, is paramount as the business owner and Senior Management Team somehow make decisions from all of that traffic:
- Make sure that data is coming in from the source (AWS / Google Cloud) – not pre-curated and manipulated and filleted before it gets to the key strategists.
- Make sure that the people who are building out the reports, the looks, the views – all understand the business, the context, and what the key metrics and targets are. If you are a small business with limited resources, there are tools like Zoho Analytics (and others), which can level the playing field – and give you serious firepower.
- Make sure that as many people as possible see the information and the reports, and that it is communicated with the Stakeholders in nice clear dashboards – from investors, to owners, to the companies functions – straddling legal, sales, marketing, HR and beyond.
Visibility and communication have to become part of the DNA and makeup, and each person creates their own validation as they sense check and contribute on whether the data in front of them has those 5 key attributes: Accuracy, Completeness, Reliability, Relevance and Timeliness.