Who's your Spock on the bridge?
Tom Davenport and I recently had the opportunity to collaborate on an article in Harvard Business Review on the fast growing role of the data scientist. Not only was it a great honor to work with someone like Tom (whose books were critical for me in helping us think about building the LinkedIn Analytics Team), but it also an opportunity to reflect on how much has changed in the data space in the past couple of years. Those that have benefited the most from the use of data have really taken to heart the difference between talking about data and being ‘data driven’.
What does it mean to be ‘data driven’? The definition we came up with in Building Data Science Teams is:
"A data-driven organization acquires, processes, and leverages data in a timely fashion to create efficiencies, iterate on and develop new products, and navigate the competitive landscape."
The organizations that really take this to heart do one thing above all others -- they allow people that use the data to have context and take action. Conversely, organizations that only talk about data and aren’t data driven, relegate those with data to the proverbial back office.
The model that I’ve talked about in the past is to use the analogy of Star Trek (of course the original one). When crew is aboard the Enterprise and the Romulans, Klingons, etc are about to attack, what does Capt. Kirk do? Does he send some ensign down the turbo shaft (cue cool Star Trek door whooshing sound) down into the bowels of the ship to talk to the data guys? Imagine how that would go:
Kirk: What the heck is going on? <klaxons blaring>
Ensign: We need some data and I’m on it sir
...
[Ensign finds data guys deep in the guts of the ship in a dark room]
Ensign: The Capt. needs some data on the bad guys, get me X, Y, and Z.
Data guy: I don’t think that’s what the Capt wants.
Ensign: Just get me the damn data.
Data guy: Ok, but you’ll be back
…
[Back on the bridge]
Ensign: Here’s the data sir
Krik: What the F* is this? This doesn’t make any sense.
Ensign: Sorry sir
…
[Back in the data room]
Ensign: You’re right.
Data guy: I told you that’s not what the Capt wanted. Use this instead.
[Meanwhile the ship has been blown up]
Of course this isn’t how it goes. The way it really goes is:
Kirk: Spock what do you think?
Spock: Curious....
What’s the point? Spock is on the bridge and he has context. The best data driven organizations have their version of Spock on the bridge. Without giving your people context you’re always going to be limited in how data driven you can be.