An analytics culture means a commitment to making fact-based decisions over gut feel across the organization. Employees must understand the need for data-driven decisions or use the wealth of information available. Even if you've hired the brightest data scientists out there, the value will be stifled if the culture does not support their research and effectively use their findings. How can you prepare your culture for a shift to a data-driven business?
The message from the top must be clear: "In Data We Trust." Identify a handful of executive sponsors to help the data science team develop and prioritize the most valuable use cases. These executive sponsors can help secure the funding to complete projects, serve as the direct line of communication for the data scientists, and, most importantly, advocate for the adoption of the data science team's solutions. As the results begin to show value, the sponsorship group can grow and permeate other organization areas.
Tip: Don't stick to just technical leaders. Consider incorporating non-technical executives within a data science strategy and using case development to understand the data science process's value.
A large piece of successfully integrating data science into your business is the overarching roadmap detailing where this integration will begin and how this will progress. A good data science strategy should be cohesive and cross-disciplined. It should account for all aspects of the business but give preference to areas that provide the best combination of business value and feasibility. It should result in a roadmap highlighting your most significant needs that looks for synergies across departments as you consider how data-driven decisions can impact your organization. The strategy will optimize how you organize your data science talent and its processes to direct their work.
Tip: Hiring a Data Science leader is only part of the equation for standing up a data science practice or driving data science initiatives. Look for a partner like CCG that can act as an extension of your team and offer guidance for standing up a competency center or center of excellence for analytics initiatives.
Everyone in your organization must trust your data, especially your operational decision-makers. Your business' decision-makers should advocate for your data's value and view business data as an asset. These leaders and the data end-users need a baseline understanding of how to read, interpret, and communicate data as information. Leaders don't need to know the ins and out of how to process the data themselves, but they should feel comfortable in referencing data to make decisions.
Tip: Consider leveraging executive-level training sessions by companies like CCG, focusing on fundamentals and business applications for technical concepts.
Written by CCG, an organization in Tampa, Florida, that helps companies become more insights-driven, solve complex challenges and accelerate growth through industry-specific data and analytics solutions.