The what, why and how of data-driven working

Data-driven working has become an indispensable part of modern business operations. And for good reason. As our lives, and those of our customers, increasingly take place online, enormous amounts of data are being generated. The number of sensors collecting data in all kinds of ways has also grown exponentially over the past few years. Technology is more accessible and cheaper, and more and more data is readily available thanks to IoT and cloud technology. Data is everywhere, and it affects the way we work. But what exactly is data-driven working? And why should you do it? We answer these and other questions in this blog.

What is data-driven working?

Business is mainly about making decisions. How are we going to tackle this? When are we successful? You can make these decisions and evaluations based on gut feeling, but you can also make them based on data. In companies with a strong data culture, important decisions are informed by data and analysis, and executives act on analytically derived insights rather than intuition or experience.[1]

Data-driven working means working on the basis of facts. These facts emerge when collected data is analysed, for example using data analytics tools, to gather information. This information, combined with the knowledge and experience of employees, then forms insights. By making informed decisions based on these insights, you make your organisation data-driven.

A data-driven organisation is characterised by making this way of working part of every work process and every department. It is no coincidence that research firm Gartner states that business leaders increasingly recognise the importance of data and analytics when it comes to accelerating digital business initiatives. As a result, data and analytics are shifting from a secondary focus – handled by a separate team – to a core function across the entire organisation. However, business leaders often underestimate the complexity of data and end up missing opportunities. According to Gartner, this can be addressed by involving strategic data specialists in the process, such as a Chief Data Officer (CDO). By involving them in setting goals and strategies, they can even increase the consistent production of business value[2].

Why should I work data-driven?

From gut feeling to well-founded decisions.

The potential for data-driven business strategies and information products is greater than ever. But while companies thrive on data and analytics, we still too often see data and analytics playing a supporting role when it comes to business initiatives.[3] This needs to change. And that means moving from steering on gut feeling to making well-founded decisions.

A data-driven approach means you know sooner when something is going well or not. This allows you to adjust course more quickly to bring about change. And not only that: you also know which levers are best to pull for the result you want. You have the data to properly support your decisions, which also makes it easy to get other stakeholders on board. It also becomes possible to use the available data to automate certain processes. The organisation works faster and smarter. By working data-driven, we steer our processes better, discover and predict patterns in customer behaviour or business performance and, in some cases, even find new business models by marketing data products. In short, the benefits are numerous, and if you are not yet working data-driven, it is high time to start. But how do you get started with data-driven working?

How do I get started with data-driven working?

The transition to data-driven working also brings organisational change.

Data-driven working is more than just being able to get the right data out of your systems. The transition to data-driven working also brings organisational change; on the one hand to place responsibility in the right place, but sometimes also because it can be wise to outsource the specific technical execution or support to a technical partner. According to Gartner, however, it is above all about your people. Data alone can only take an organisation so far. People are the real drivers. Analytics leaders must therefore attract the right talent, lead by example and know when not to trust data[4].

Teach your employees to fish

Your employees are essential to truly successful data-driven working. It is important to provide sufficient training so they can work with data and analytics tools. ShopRunner CEO Sam Yagan has a handy trick for this. “The way we got everyone to start using analytics tools is by making sure they know how to ‘fish’. When someone comes to the analytics team with a request and says, ‘Hey, I’d like you to put together this report’, the analytics team is expected not only to send the report, but also to teach the person how to do it themselves in the future, so the request doesn’t come in again.”[5]

A journey of improvement

It is important to realise that data-driven working is not a final destination but a continuous journey of improvement. Your data strategy, roadmap, KPIs and dashboards therefore deserve to be reviewed regularly. Every process you optimise gives you data and insights that let you make further improvements. And that new data also gives you an increasingly clear picture of your own organisation, your customers’ wishes and your products. By scaling along with the growth of your data, you gain more and more context and your data-driven decisions keep getting better. But that’s not all: the knowledge you gain this way may be worth even more in the long run. Because with the right data, predicting success factors becomes easier and easier, and you apply data more and more in your business model. And who knows which data will give your organisation the decisive advantage?

E-mergo can support companies on both a technical and an organisational level to help them transition to a data-driven way of working. Want to know more about how we help companies with this? Then watch our on-demand webinar by Data Strategy Leader Louis de Roo or download our ebook on data-driven working.

Webinar: Data-driven working in 7 steps

Ebook: Data-driven working