Data = Tech + Culture
To convert data to $$ you need both Tech & Culture.
On the Tech side this is quite obvious. You need to have the right talent with the right expertise in setting up the modern data stack. The modern data stack today has 5 layers including data collection, ingestion, storage, modeling and data reporting. Having a data analyst as a proxy for a data team isn’t going to cut it. Data engineers, Data platform, BI engineers aren’t just buzzwords. Being able to leverage data effectively and at scale requires investment in building out a core data layer.
Another thing to note at the risk of going on a tangent is that companies often confuse engineering expertise for data expertise. You might have an incredible engineering org but that’s not a guarantee for any data competency. From practical experience I’ve found that engineering orgs designing data architecture is a recipe for disaster. That’s because data services most of the organization outside engineering. Sales, marketing operations, finance etc. Engineering and product is just a stakeholder in the data ecosystem. That too a smaller stakeholder as compared to some of the other departments. Engineering designed data stacks don’t often account for the different types of data sources outside engineering’s preview and aren’t flexible enough to support business users without tech intervention. To have the right “tech” as I referred to above means having a dedicated data team which can service the entire organization, not just engineering. If you don’t have this team & data stack this is something 5x does as a service.
The culture side is probably the harder part. The reality is that this starts at the top. We often attribute the culture of companies to the values of the CEO. If data is not a priority for the CEO you cannot expect your company to have a lasting data culture.
At WeWork we had a fairly sophisticated data org. Large part of the reason WeWork was able to build space faster, cheaper and higher quality than anyone else stemmed from data and automation of the construction process. Fundamentally though Adam didn’t value data. That’s a fact! As a result we didn’t quite have the right data culture in place which would have probably helped us avoid some critical errors.
Driving any behavior change is a non-trivial problem inside any organization. Creating a data culture is one of them and a classic chicken and the egg problem. Organizations that are used to solving problems in a particular way need to unlearn their way of doing things and relearn a better way. This takes deliberate effort. If you’re unable to drive this change it doesn’t matter how good the data team is, if no one adopts the work they produce, it’s going to have very little impact across the organization.
Some effective tactics in driving a culture change include: (More on how to effectively deploy these strategies in a later post.)
- Having self-service reporting so that anyone can answer questions without depending on the data team.
- Investing in data training for the org.
- Being able to track OKRs at every level. Breathe these OKRs at every opportunity (Meetings, 1:1’s, dashboards)
- Actively measuring to see which employees are using data are effective tactics. Game-ify the experience so folks can see how much time each of their colleagues is spending on data reporting!
- Bring on new team members that come from a data driven culture.
Like I said earlier, It all does start top down meaning if you don’t have executives using data it’s difficult to create a lasting data culture. However you also need to train the org bottom up as well. The strategies shared above help with this. The good news on training the org bottom up is these are teachable skills. You have a lot more influence bottom up than you do top down.
At 5x, we strive to focus on both parts of the equation. On the tech side, we have deep expertise in the modern data stack, provide highly vetted dedicated data engineers which serve as an extension of your internal team and have pre fabricated templates for all of the common use cases. However we also understand that culture is as important. On the culture side we work on educating the executive team, provide training and best practices for stakeholders as well as help you track adoption of data in the org.
Would love to hear your experience about driving impact through data.
Please reach us at hello@5xdata.co for questions, comments or just to say hey!
