What does it mean for an organization to be data-driven? How does an organization get there? Many organizations think that they are data-driven but the reality is that few genuinely are and that we could all do better. In this talk, I cover what it truly means to be data driven. The answer, it turns out, is not to do with the latest tools and technologies (although they can help) but having an appropriate data culture than spans the whole organization, where data is accessible broadly, embedded into operations and processes, and enables effective decision making. In this presentation, I dissect what an effective data-driven culture entails, covering facets such as data leadership, data literacy, and A/B testing, illustrating concepts with examples from different industries as well as personal experience.

1. Creating a Data-Driven
Organization
Carl Anderson
@leapingllamasData Day Texas, 2016-01-16, Salon DE, 3pm

2. Why data-driven?

4. 5%more productive
Controlling for other factors, data-driven orgs are
Brynjolfsson, et al 2011. Strength in numbers: how does data-driven decisonmaking
affect firm performance? Social Science Research Network http://bit.ly/1dg896Y

5. $13/ $1 invested
Analytics pays back
Nucleus Research. 2014. http://bit.ly/XQFDbv

6. What is data-driven?

7. Having lots of reports does not make you data-driven.

8. Having lots of dashboards does not make you data-driven.

9. Having lots of alerts does not make you data-driven.

10. Figure from http://www.bwfhosting.com/we-got- your-back/

11. Data-driven: you must have analytics
Reporting Analysis
Descriptive Prescriptive
What? Why?
Backward-looking Forward-looking
Raise questions Answer questions
Data → Information Data + Information → insights
Reports, dashboards, alerts Findings, Recommendation
No context story telling

12. Figure from https://www.sas.com/news/sascom/analytics_levels.pdf
Levels of Analytics

13. Analytics Value Chain
Figure from http://adobe.ly/1HLJKGk

14. “Analytics is about impact…In our company [Zynga],
if you have brilliant insight and you did great research
and no one changes, you get zero credit.”
Ken Rudin
Google

15. Train analysts to be business savvy
2013 Strata+Hadoop talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJFwsZwTBgg

16. Having a hadoop cluster does not make you data-driven.

18. Leverage data as a strategic asset.

19. Data-driven requires a data culture

20. Culture
Testing
Iterative,
learning
Open,
sharing
Self service
Data
leadership
Broad
data literacy
Inquisitive,
Questioning
Goals first
Data Driven Culture

21. a strong testing culture
Being data-driven means having…
Innovate through online and offline experimentation.
Encourage hypothesis generation broadly across org.

22. “you get surprises more often, and surprises are a key
source of innovation. You only get a surprise when
you are trying something and the result is different
than you expected, so the sooner you run the
experiment, the sooner you are likely to find a
surprise, and the surprise is the market speaking to
you, telling you something you didn’t know.”
Scott Cook
Intuit
Baer, D. 2013. Why Intuit founder Scott Cook want you to stop listening to your boss. Fast Company

23. Optimize for Right Thing

24. Iterate

26. an open, sharing culture
Being data-driven means having…
No data hoarding or silos. Bring data together
to create rich contexts. Connect the dots.

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Context is King

28. Order #16478645
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31. Order #16478645
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32. Order #16478645
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33. Order #16478645
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34. Order #16478645
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Refer a
friend
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Context is King

35. 1/3
business leaders frequently make decisions
with data that they cannot trust
Business Analytics and Optimization for the Intelligent Enterprise. IBM. http://ibm.co/1LR2pCr
Invest in data quality

36. a self service culture
Being data-driven means having…
Business units have necessary data access as well as within-
team analytical skills to drive insights, actions, and impact.

37. Traits of great analysts
• Numerate
• Detail-oriented
• Skeptical
• Confident
• Curious
• Communicators
• Data lovers
• Business savvy
Few, S. 2009. Now You See It. Analytics Press, Oakland has a good discussion of this topic, pp. 19–24.

38. Hiring not just as individuals but to complement team
Nordstrom data lab (as of Strata 2013)

39. a broad data literacy
Being data-driven means having…
All decision-makers have appropriate skills to use and interpret data.

40. Analysts must sell, sell, sell their product

41. Figure from http://www.uglyresearch.com/UglyResearch_DataEasy_DecidingHard.pdf
Tie actions to outcomes

42. a goals first approach.
Being data-driven means having…
Set out metrics before experiment. What does success mean?
Have an analysis plan. Prevent gaming the system.

43. an objective, inquisitive culture
Being data-driven means having…
‘“Do you have data to back that up?” should be a question that no one is
afraid to ask and everyone is prepared to answer’—Julie Arsenault.

44. a visible, clearly-articulated strategy
Being data-driven means having…
Commonly understood vision. Suite of well-designed, accessible
KPIs. All staff understand how their work ties back to these metrics.

45. strong data leadership
Being data-driven means having…
A head of data to evangelize data as strategic asset with
budget, team, and influence to drive cultural change.

46. Which strategies have proved successful in promoting a
data-driven culture in your organization?
Strategy % of respondents
Top-down guidance and / or mandates from execs 49
Promotion of data-sharing practices 48
Increased availability of training in data analytics 40
Communication of the benefits of data-driven decision-making 40
Recruitment of additional data analysts 17
2013. Fostering a data-driven culture. Economist Intelligence Unit. http://bit.ly/1MeGoN8

47. but bottom up too
Change should not just be top-down
Everyone in org has role and responsibility through “leveling up” their
data skills, mutual mentoring, and embedding data into their processes.

48. 2014 O’Reilly Data Science Salary Survey
Learn and you shall receive

49. blindly following data.
Being data-driven doesn’t mean
Augment decision makers with objective, trustworthy, and relevant data.

52. using data to effect impact and results
Ultimately, data-driven means
Push data through “analytics value chain” from collection, analysis,
decisions, action, and finally to impact. Partway along chain doesn’t count.

53. Example actions
• Analyst competency matrix
• Raise bar for new analyst hires
• Vision statement: data culture
• Stats for managers class
• Mentor / train analysts to improve skills such as stats, SQL
• Mentoring staff in experimental design
• Democratizing data access through BI tools
• Push on ROI, tie back to strategic objectives

54. Don’t get complacent!
“With the exception of, say, an Amazon, no global store chain was thought to have
demonstrably keener data-driven insight into customer loyalty and behavior”

55. Tesco Today
• Tesco stock rated as junk
• Shedding 9000 jobs
• Closing 43 stores
• $9.6B loss for 2014 fiscal year ($33Bn debt)
• Tried and failed to sell Dunhumby, their analytics gem
• Warren Buffett: “I made a mistake on Tesco”

56. Data
Organization
Decision Making
People
Data Leadership
Culture
Analytics org: composition, skills, training
Data quality, data management
Embedded, federated analytics
Testing mindset, fact-based, anti-HiPPO
Chief Data Officer / Chief Analytics Officer
Collaborative, inclusive, open, inquisitive
Summary

57. Bake in data-driven culture early!

58. Available now
1. What is Data-Driven?
2. Data Quality
3. Data Collection
4. Analyst Org
5. Data Analysis
6. Metric Design
7. Story Telling
8. A/B Testing
9. Decision Making
10. Data-Driven Culture
11. Data-Driven C-suite
12. Privacy, Ethics
13. Conclusions
Copyright © 2015 Carl Anderson

59. Questions?
@leapingllamas
http://p-value.info
carl.anderson@warbyparker.com