One of the things that I hear / read about is becoming a 'data driven' organization. I see a lot of solutions being offered up to help get you there. I've seen and heard non-technical leaders indicate that they need analysts or developers to help get them to being a data driven organization. And you know what, they're right. They will need all of those things. Soon. But not right now. Do you know what they need right now? Clean data. Do you know how they get it?
I have some ideas, and some experiences which I'll talk about below. These aren't the end all be all of getting clean data. they worked where I was. They may work for you. There's lots of different ways to get to having clean data that your analysts, developers, power users, whatever can use, but you will ALWAYS need clean data FIRST.
OK, so where to start?
Two places:
- Key Performance Indicators (KPI)
- A list of all of the systems that you need to have KPIs for
KPIs
The order in which these are done is immaterial (hence the UNordered list above) but you'll need to do this.
For the KPIs ask the executives, or leaders, what is it that our Business cares about. Do you live in a fixed revenue world, so your number 1 goal is to drive down costs to increase profit? Then look at the costs and determine what's driving them and how you can measure them. Are you in an environment where both costs and revenues are influenced by ALL SORTS of exogenous things. Write those Mother Fuckers down then. But at the end of the day, know your fucking KPIs. If you don't know what you want to measure, then having clean data isn't going to do shit for you.
Your systems
Do you have lots of internal systems, and no external systems? Lots of external systems and no internal systems, something in between? No matter what, it doesn't really matter. You need to write that shit down. Write down the big ERP system, the small spread sheet that bill in accounting has 'for some reason'. Write it ALL down. This isn't about curating. This is about knowing what the FUCK everyone is doing and working on and worrying about. If you don't write it down now, you're not going to account for it later on and it may be way more important that you think. Not because it actually IS, but because someone in the power structure thinks it is and you didn't write it down so fuck you and your project. You can go to hell and die with this new fangled bullshit.
Once you're written down your KPIs and Your Systems you know have a better idea of WTF it is that you'll actually be doing. It's going to be hard. It's going to take longer than you think it should (especially if you're in a corporation of any size where there is a large chain of command).
This post is part 2 of the "Remove if Not Needed" series: