Humantel’s Post

My problem with our obsession with data is two fold, one is obvious and frequently discussed. OBVIOUS - We are obsessed with what we can measure. I've complained before about our obsession over measuring anything, everything, precisely, and in real time, and how we're now subject to near endless meetings about things which actually have zero meaning........ and because people LOVE numbers, we can spend 4 hours over any TLA which measures any number divided by another, which people REALLY love, because they are often not round numbers, so it feels sciency......but this is old news. ------- NOT OBVIOUS - The corrorally...We have lost ANY remote interest in ANYTHING we can't measure, regardless of how utterly vital it could be. I keep being in meetings where nobody cares about anything that happens offline. - A high end distributor of Kitchen equipment could be selling nothing because it's not open at weekends, and nobody would care because it's not on an online dashboard. I keep being in meetings where nobody cares about anything thats subjective - A car dealership could be selling no cars, because all the sales staff are extremely rude and lazy, and since there likely isn't a way to put numbers on this, nobody cares I keep being in meetings where nobody cares about anything that happens a long time after the event. - An advertising campaign could ensure that a price increase in 2 years time, goes through without any decrease in sales, due to brand favorability, and nobody would care. I keep being in meetings where amazing things can happen and we don't know - Sponsoring a stadium can lead to brilliant meetings in fancy pants corporate hospitality suites that save a company from bankruptcy, but thats not going to show up in a dashboard. The closer we get to data, the further away we get from common sense. The more we obsess over data, less we understand people. The more that we look at what we know, the more we refuse to look for what we don't. And for 95% of companies, it's likely you have 0% visibility into about 95% of things that matter. For 95% of companies the stream of data is so strong, and narrow, it's blinding, not illuminating And about 50% of the time, the data we do get access to, is of such unusual customers, behaving in rather atypical ways, it actually does a brilliant job of totally misleading us. We're obsessing over and tweaking strategies based on borderline lunatics, or at least statistical anomalies. We are driving the car with almost no understanding of ANYTHING, while we focus maniacally on what we can see, in precision, in real time feeds, despite it AT BEST meaning ABSOLUTELY nothing.

My problem with our obsession with data is two fold, one is obvious and frequently discussed. OBVIOUS - We are obsessed with what we can measure. I've complained before about our obsession over measuring anything, everything, precisely, and in real time, and how we're now subject to near endless meetings about things which actually have zero meaning........ and because people LOVE numbers, we can spend 4 hours over any TLA which measures any number divided by another, which people REALLY love, because they are often not round numbers, so it feels sciency......but this is old news. ------- NOT OBVIOUS - The corrorally...We have lost ANY remote interest in ANYTHING we can't measure, regardless of how utterly vital it could be. I keep being in meetings where nobody cares about anything that happens offline. - A high end distributor of Kitchen equipment could be selling nothing because it's not open at weekends, and nobody would care because it's not on an online dashboard. I keep being in meetings where nobody cares about anything thats subjective - A car dealership could be selling no cars, because all the sales staff are extremely rude and lazy, and since there likely isn't a way to put numbers on this, nobody cares I keep being in meetings where nobody cares about anything that happens a long time after the event. - An advertising campaign could ensure that a price increase in 2 years time, goes through without any decrease in sales, due to brand favorability, and nobody would care. I keep being in meetings where amazing things can happen and we don't know - Sponsoring a stadium can lead to brilliant meetings in fancy pants corporate hospitality suites that save a company from bankruptcy, but thats not going to show up in a dashboard. The closer we get to data, the further away we get from common sense. The more we obsess over data, less we understand people. The more that we look at what we know, the more we refuse to look for what we don't. And for 95% of companies, it's likely you have 0% visibility into about 95% of things that matter. For 95% of companies the stream of data is so strong, and narrow, it's blinding, not illuminating And about 50% of the time, the data we do get access to, is of such unusual customers, behaving in rather atypical ways, it actually does a brilliant job of totally misleading us. We're obsessing over and tweaking strategies based on borderline lunatics, or at least statistical anomalies. We are driving the car with almost no understanding of ANYTHING, while we focus maniacally on what we can see, in precision, in real time feeds, despite it AT BEST meaning ABSOLUTELY nothing.

My problem with our obsession with data is two fold, one is obvious and frequently discussed. OBVIOUS - We are obsessed with what we can measure. I've complained before about our obsession over measuring anything, everything, precisely, and in real time, and how we're now subject to near endless meetings about things which actually have zero meaning........ and because people LOVE numbers, we can spend 4 hours over any TLA which measures any number divided by another, which people REALLY love, because they are often not round numbers, so it feels sciency......but this is old news. ------- NOT OBVIOUS - The corrorally...We have lost ANY remote interest in ANYTHING we can't measure, regardless of how utterly vital it could be. I keep being in meetings where nobody cares about anything that happens offline. - A high end distributor of Kitchen equipment could be selling nothing because it's not open at weekends, and nobody would care because it's not on an online dashboard. I keep being in meetings where nobody cares about anything thats subjective - A car dealership could be selling no cars, because all the sales staff are extremely rude and lazy, and since there likely isn't a way to put numbers on this, nobody cares I keep being in meetings where nobody cares about anything that happens a long time after the event. - An advertising campaign could ensure that a price increase in 2 years time, goes through without any decrease in sales, due to brand favorability, and nobody would care. I keep being in meetings where amazing things can happen and we don't know - Sponsoring a stadium can lead to brilliant meetings in fancy pants corporate hospitality suites that save a company from bankruptcy, but thats not going to show up in a dashboard. The closer we get to data, the further away we get from common sense. The more we obsess over data, less we understand people. The more that we look at what we know, the more we refuse to look for what we don't. And for 95% of companies, it's likely you have 0% visibility into about 95% of things that matter. For 95% of companies the stream of data is so strong, and narrow, it's blinding, not illuminating And about 50% of the time, the data we do get access to, is of such unusual customers, behaving in rather atypical ways, it actually does a brilliant job of totally misleading us. We're obsessing over and tweaking strategies based on borderline lunatics, or at least statistical anomalies. We are driving the car with almost no understanding of ANYTHING, while we focus maniacally on what we can see, in precision, in real time feeds, despite it AT BEST meaning ABSOLUTELY nothing.

My problem with our obsession with data is two fold, one is obvious and frequently discussed. OBVIOUS - We are obsessed with what we can measure. I've complained before about our obsession over measuring anything, everything, precisely, and in real time, and how we're now subject to near endless meetings about things which actually have zero meaning........ and because people LOVE numbers, we can spend 4 hours over any TLA which measures any number divided by another, which people REALLY love, because they are often not round numbers, so it feels sciency......but this is old news. ------- NOT OBVIOUS - The corrorally...We have lost ANY remote interest in ANYTHING we can't measure, regardless of how utterly vital it could be. I keep being in meetings where nobody cares about anything that happens offline. - A high end distributor of Kitchen equipment could be selling nothing because it's not open at weekends, and nobody would care because it's not on an online dashboard. I keep being in meetings where nobody cares about anything thats subjective - A car dealership could be selling no cars, because all the sales staff are extremely rude and lazy, and since there likely isn't a way to put numbers on this, nobody cares I keep being in meetings where nobody cares about anything that happens a long time after the event. - An advertising campaign could ensure that a price increase in 2 years time, goes through without any decrease in sales, due to brand favorability, and nobody would care. I keep being in meetings where amazing things can happen and we don't know - Sponsoring a stadium can lead to brilliant meetings in fancy pants corporate hospitality suites that save a company from bankruptcy, but thats not going to show up in a dashboard. The closer we get to data, the further away we get from common sense. The more we obsess over data, less we understand people. The more that we look at what we know, the more we refuse to look for what we don't. And for 95% of companies, it's likely you have 0% visibility into about 95% of things that matter. For 95% of companies the stream of data is so strong, and narrow, it's blinding, not illuminating And about 50% of the time, the data we do get access to, is of such unusual customers, behaving in rather atypical ways, it actually does a brilliant job of totally misleading us. We're obsessing over and tweaking strategies based on borderline lunatics, or at least statistical anomalies. We are driving the car with almost no understanding of ANYTHING, while we focus maniacally on what we can see, in precision, in real time feeds, despite it AT BEST meaning ABSOLUTELY nothing.

My problem with our obsession with data is two fold, one is obvious and frequently discussed. OBVIOUS - We are obsessed with what we can measure. I've complained before about our obsession over measuring anything, everything, precisely, and in real time, and how we're now subject to near endless meetings about things which actually have zero meaning........ and because people LOVE numbers, we can spend 4 hours over any TLA which measures any number divided by another, which people REALLY love, because they are often not round numbers, so it feels sciency......but this is old news. ------- NOT OBVIOUS - The corrorally...We have lost ANY remote interest in ANYTHING we can't measure, regardless of how utterly vital it could be. I keep being in meetings where nobody cares about anything that happens offline. - A high end distributor of Kitchen equipment could be selling nothing because it's not open at weekends, and nobody would care because it's not on an online dashboard. I keep being in meetings where nobody cares about anything thats subjective - A car dealership could be selling no cars, because all the sales staff are extremely rude and lazy, and since there likely isn't a way to put numbers on this, nobody cares I keep being in meetings where nobody cares about anything that happens a long time after the event. - An advertising campaign could ensure that a price increase in 2 years time, goes through without any decrease in sales, due to brand favorability, and nobody would care. I keep being in meetings where amazing things can happen and we don't know - Sponsoring a stadium can lead to brilliant meetings in fancy pants corporate hospitality suites that save a company from bankruptcy, but thats not going to show up in a dashboard. The closer we get to data, the further away we get from common sense. The more we obsess over data, less we understand people. The more that we look at what we know, the more we refuse to look for what we don't. And for 95% of companies, it's likely you have 0% visibility into about 95% of things that matter. For 95% of companies the stream of data is so strong, and narrow, it's blinding, not illuminating And about 50% of the time, the data we do get access to, is of such unusual customers, behaving in rather atypical ways, it actually does a brilliant job of totally misleading us. We're obsessing over and tweaking strategies based on borderline lunatics, or at least statistical anomalies. We are driving the car with almost no understanding of ANYTHING, while we focus maniacally on what we can see, in precision, in real time feeds, despite it AT BEST meaning ABSOLUTELY nothing.

Pro tip - make sure the business is getting the MOST from your data team. How? 🤔 ✅ Make sure you're communicating all the work that is going on behind the scenes when you're delivering insights that are helping drive business decisions ✅ As you're making the business more data literate, look at increasing the business literacy of the tech teams 👉 i.e. don't assume they understand how a solution works, such as a new dashboarding/report - pretend they know nothing and explain it all as if you're explaining to a 10 year old, so they know exactly how it will benefit them and can be (somewhat) self sufficient (they'll tell you what they know although the things you and me think are common sense won't be for them as they don't live and breathe data) ✅ Celebrate wins, not just with the team but with the wider business - make sure they're aware what the data team has achieved ✅ Communicate with the business what current initiatives are and what you're working towards 👉 Maybe you can host an open floor discussion and see if anyone outside of the tech teams has any ideas, or even problems you can solve Yes, the above takes time and energy and effort, although we're in the era of embedding data into the business, and with so many businesses wanting to become more data driven, do what you can to achieve this 🚀 Everyone has a part to play, so take ownership of it, you never know what value you could bring and how many people you'll be able to help 👏 #data #technology #business