Go beyond data (or fail)
Dmitry Gudkov
Someone at EasyMorph (the easiest-to-use ETL and API automation app with 180+ actions and 700+ customers)
We all know that "you can't manage what you can't measure". And it's true, you can't. What this adage fails to emphasize is that while measuring is necessary for management, it's never sufficient. In a mathematical sense, "sufficient" = "necessary" + "X". If you don't understand that "X", you can't manage what you measure. If you work in data & analytics, your business impact is limited if you don't go beyond data.
Data is always simplification and a loss of information. You have probably always thought that data increases knowledge, so it might shock you, but data is actually a regression, a simplification that implies a loss of knowledge.
How come?
Almost always, and especially in business, data captures some real-life events and attributes. Data is a digital projection of the real world. However, the real world is incredibly rich in information and is incredibly nuanced. It's simply not feasible to capture (digitalize) everything! Therefore, data captures only some aspects or properties of real-world events and objects while ignoring all the others. Therefore, no data is an exact representation, it's just a simplified, boiled-down projection. Just like a map of a territory doesn't contain all the features of the territory.
领英推荐
What does it mean from a practical perspective? If you want to build really useful decision-support applications, try to go beyond data. Find ways how to add the missing X to your metrics, reports, and dashboards. Find ways to create environments for accumulating, navigating, and sharing non-qualitative knowledge about your subject area - such as risks, implications, sentiments, and opportunities. And no, adding a chat won't do it.
Unfortunately, the BI vendors won't be of help here. They are stuck in the old paradigm and are overly focused on technology and silly things like rounded corners in bar charts.
I don't have a ready solution for that, either. At least, not yet. So you need to find your own ways.
Get inventive.
Treasury | Capital Markets | Risk Management
2 个月"Find ways to create environments for accumulating, navigating, and sharing non-qualitative knowledge about your subject area..." It indeed takes a whole environment to get the most out of data and analytics!
Great discussion. Data becomes information. when managed Information becomes knowledge when patterns emerge and finally becomes wisdom when that knowledge is applied using principals. I have been in the game of Business Intelligence tools for too long and know Intelligence of the what you are looking at has plagued our craft since the beginning. Your dashboards should tell a narrative to the human who needs to use them for decision making and NOT just compliance of data management. CONTEXT over CONTENT Use the tools at hand to tell a relevant story and not just to show off your visualization tools. I leverage your platform every day to make sense of the noise so the end users can make informed decisions and NOT just manage the numbers.
Information Management Practice at Acctiva Consulting, Consultant & CPM/BI Developer
3 个月Did Musk use data or information when making decisions to support Trump? - And now he is the richest man in the World
Executive Consultant & SAP Finance Expert for Digital Transformations
3 个月Great impulse for discussion. Data we collect is often data of the past, data others collect and data which is not suitable or not even complete. For me personally is what you describe as X equal to data ?between the lines“ - Maybe the fundament of Information which creates intuition or gives the final impulse to follow what your gut feel is telling you. In this case: Do we need to fill X with data? I think we can‘t. Why don‘t think out of bounds: Investigate what are the drivers of your business, what might influence your tomorrow - or maxbe the tomorrow of your products and market participants. With this the answer to what is ?X“ gets even more complex and multi-dimensional. But I am sure in the end something will stll last - another X, maybe smaller ;-) …. maybe we can call it contingency - this is what you might be able to predict - but you will will never get ?the real“ and single answer for it. Just my 5 cents ;-)