What's your Data Driven-definition?

We sit in a room, some join over Teams (if network issues allows), and someone says "...we must be data driven..."; the crowd nods in agreement or silently approve (they might have been muted).

And with that, the meeting disperse and everyone continue doing what they think is needed to enable a data driven approach, but without realising that what just happened was a missed opportunity to align everyone's effort, thus reducing the the chance of ever reaching the goal - or is it even an end-state? - to nearly zero.

The problem is that "data driven" rarely is fleshed out - it's not a term that has gained wide and unanimous meaning.

Recently, I asked the speaker to define the term, "when you say data driven, what do you mean?".

-- "Well, what I mean is that we need to make our decisions based on data".

The above definition is very common. However, it is insidious in at least two ways. First, it implies the opinion that most, if not all, decisions up until now has just been haphazardly based on gut feelings. Second, it focuses on the data, not the analysis of that data - as if volumes of data in itself would solve all problems.

If any of 1 or 2 is true in your organization, only you can answer.

Most people actually make the best decisions they can, with the information that is available to them. I challenge anyone who opposes to find a decision maker that blatantly ignored existing facts and just "winged it"!

This means that the above definition is not useful to make data driven to become a priority, it is borderline harmful to that end.

Dataversity has collected a set of data driven definitions. Are these better than the above? Dataversity's own definition is pretty much the above, with "...in real-time" slapped to the end of it.

Definitions must be useful to gain traction. Either the definition creates a coherent understanding that everyone can relate to in their daily work, or it provides a target that can be used to measure fulfillment.

A definition stating that "we need to make our decisions based on data" does neither, since it in most cases appears to already be happening, so we are not really inspiring anything to change.

If we look at the purpose of becoming data driven, it is associated with becoming better, more efficient, more profitable and more relevant to customers. All of these outcomes mirror a continuous improvement, thus should also the definition express this ambition.

My definition of data driven is "We continuously make better decisions, faster, using relevant and available data".

Data driven is not an end-state, it is a way of working

The definition of data driven is not about technology, but about human behaviour.

How do we know when we are data driven? What behaviour would we expect from all members of our organisation, have we reached that pot of gold at the end of the rainbow?

When an organisation is truly data driven, every member of it should expect that the data needed exist, that the data they require it is easy to find and that the state of that data is useful since it is described and classified to be easy to use.

This would allow anyone, human or machine, in both operative and analytical processes to get the data they need for the purpose they need it - and make a better decision.

Thus, data driven is much more about the ambition of Who makes decisions, with What data and for what Purpose.

To achieve this, a coordinated approach of people, processes, technology and data is required.

Finally, does it matter what definition of data driven you use? Not really. Just make sure that your definition is the same as everyone else's in the room, and that it reflect the ambition of the change you require.