Data-driven has become a buzz term for years but is now getting caught up in the hype. This is only half the solution, check out the importance of the second half and why it will help optimize your strategy.

1/2 of The Solution

In today's hectic landscape, being data-driven is crucial to ensure your business remains competitive as well as relevant. The challenge lies within what data-driven actually means. Being data-driven can be argued if you're still using excel documents to capture data. You may have a data warehouse, but this isn't enough. 

The best decisions are lead by insight.

An important question to ask your team - How are you using the data to make better decisions? 

Data tells many stories, but whether or not you can use it in a way to be beneficial is the real test. It sounds obvious but is rather insightful, which is how your business should react. Some of the best decisions are based on insight and observation, which in part comes from data.

Warning Signs

Even with the right intentions, it's easy to get distracted and led in the wrong direction even if it feels right. First, ring the alarm bells if decisions are being made without substantial evidence or insight to back up the plan. There IS a difference between insightful decisions and "winging it". 

Less obvious signs are likely to be ones that include very little people into the decision or insights coming in. The whole idea of tackling challenges come from a stackable and transferable team. keep people in the loop, train them, optimize each aspect, and allow for growth. A stagnant team has no room for growth, which means defeat. 

Staying On Track

Obviously, the goal is to do what's best for your business as well as learn from your own experiences. In many cases, only data-driven ideas have not always been prosperous. If you're in a meeting and noticing this is the case, make a point to call-out the data-driven idea and transform the idea to be insightful and backed by data. This may include additional ideas and measures to ensure an idea is stable and compatible. 

Training is a vital pivot point to ensuring your team can recap most of your data and enhance turnaround processes. Companies should facilitate programs to ensure the team has the necessary skills to work with data they are given - this also ensures security measures for no data leaks. 

Final thought 

There are endless ways for companies to manage and govern their data but without the requisite skills and necessary training, then even the best governance and strategy cannot lead you to better decision making.

Looking to better your website through inhouse data? Contact Blue Archer for a consultation.