The Truth About Tidy, Clean Data

I have a confession...

I'm a digital data hoarder.

There I said it.

• As I type this, I have 145,531 unread emails.?
• I'm considering upgrading to a terabyte (1T!) storage on my next iPhone.??
• I don't delete apps on my phone; I just add more. It takes 15 swipes to browse them all.

I'm sure I can't be the only one. Did I describe you too?

It turns out, it's not just a personal problem. It's a business problem too.

Try as many organizations might; keeping all of their data neat and organized is a huge pain.

Luckily, my email box has a great search feature. And most of what I need is right there. Sure, a zero email inbox would be great. But it's not crucial to my success.

So why does clean, tidy data matter, Megan? You don't even practice what you preach...

What's the ultimate goal of a digital tidy-up?

A single source of truth. One data repository. One place to search and find everything you need.

Put another way, an all-encompassing digital record, fully-connected and easy to navigate, combine and visualize.?

And for businesses, this is vital for every type of data (financial, customer, product, cost, supply chain, the list goes on.)

Without this single repository, we run into issues, like:

? The classic case of garbage in, garbage out. You pull reports, but the numbers have an asterisk ("*missing x,y,z"), and you have a hard time coming up with reliable insight.

? Both completeness and accuracy are shaky. Frankly, you don't have the correct data to properly tell if something's missing or close to being accurate.?

? Leveraging data across apps is nearly impossible since there's no way to connect (join) them.

Above all else, you can't trust your data to make decisions, let alone find what you need when you need it.

My prediction for one of the most important jobs of the future:?

Data plumber - someone who makes sure your data flows throughout the whole ecosystem (internally and externally) with no blockages or leaks.

Maybe blockchain will help. Maybe not.

Regardless of the technological backbone/infrastructure:

The Holy Grail is clean data.

Imagine a world where: the digital plumbing underlying the whole app ecosystem (maybe we'll even call it the "metaverse") is functioning, and you have "fresh, clean" data coming through your organization's faucet.?

Wouldn't that be AMAZING!

We may not all need to become data minimalists. (I may delete a few apps today.)

But how to we get from today's digital cacophony to a much more orderly data future?

It starts within our organizations and the interconnectivity of apps.?

Sure, there's an app for everything. Lovely! But, it can be so frustrating too.

Assume that a system/app houses a big part of what you do, and it:

? Fails to be profitable and sunsets.

? Becomes harder and harder to update as others move on to newer, better apps.

? Stores important data in a silo. It's hard to get in and out (or is restricted from export without paying).

? Revokes your access to your own data when you stop paying.

Who is taking ownership of getting data from point A to B to C to D?

Competition in the technology space drives innovation, but everything needs to speak the same language.

Right now, it doesn't.?

A small step you can do today is to start ask these questions:

"How do I get new systems to talk to the systems I already have?"

AND

"How can I be part of this solution? Can I remove roadblocks for data to flow more freely and consistently?"

Maybe it's as small as setting up a consistent naming convention (e.g., "report_date_v1.pdf") for reports and files you download to a Shared file folder and everyone starts using that same cloud folder.

Clean data is essential. Think of it as necessary as clean water. As the data?ecosystem becomes more complex, it's increasingly more important to start these conversations now.?