Are you measuring your Time-to-Answer?

You may have noticed your perception of time has felt warped over the past 12 months. That’s because we’ve squeezed some of the most seismic events of this century into only a few months.

One man who knew firsthand about shaking up history was Vladimir Lenin, who famously said “There are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks when decades happen.”

For business leaders, there is a prevailing urge to ride the disruptive forces of the moment to drive revolutionary change within their own organizations. They want answers to questions such as:

• Where are the new efficiencies to be unlocked in our business? 
• Which innovative products or services will generate the most new revenue?
• How can we begin serving entirely new segments of customers?

Although they know the answers to these questions lie somewhere within their data, there is growing concern about the amount of time it takes to get the answer they need. They may spend weeks or months sourcing the data, analysing it, validating results and deciding what the answer is, but their competitors have already moved into the marketplace or matched their cost advantage.

As I’ve pointed out many times over the years, companies who can deliver answers in hours and days, instead of weeks and months, are those with the greatest capability for transformation. And in the era we now find ourselves, transformation is the new imperative.

So, how can companies drive faster answers to their vital questions about transformation? In my previous role at NewVantage Partners, we developed a critical measure of this analytical power called Time-to-Answer (TTA). We determined that accelerating TTA can: 

• answer questions that have stubbornly resisted analysis
• develop test and learn processes that quickly adapt to the market
• automate complex workflows
• leverage analytics to inform urgent business decisions
• instrument processes for optimization

If you are interested in measuring your own company’s Time-to-Answer to begin improving the speed of your analytics decisions, you need to view the entire analytics process holistically. While many come to the analytics process through the promise of Big Data, it’s more important to begin by thinking of a Big Question. From start to finish, your TTA measurement should include:

1. Clarifying the question and the type of answer needed 
2. Identifying the data required and analysis approach
3. Sourcing the data
4. Cleansing, normalizing, and integrating the data
5. Analyzing the data
6. Validating the results
7. Presenting or applying the answer

However, the steps above very rarely happen sequentially. For instance, most companies spend more time on steps 3, 4, and 5 – with each step being repeated and returned to multiple times. Emerging technologies and methodologies can dramatically reduce Time-to-Answer, but the key is using these tools to streamline the time it takes from a critical question being asked to the generation of a business insight. 

To develop the fastest TTA in your industry or marketplace, you also can’t forget that strong governance and oversight needs to coexist with agile data analysis to pave the way for new data discoveries. With so many strategic digital transformation programs being launched in 2021, the success of these programs will be driven by agile, integrated data and analytics ecosystems that accelerate insights, and enable a rapid test-and-learn cycle.

About the author

As the Global Head of Data Literacy at Qlik, I lead an integrated, business-driven approach to enabling companies to become more data-driven. I’ve spent decades developing advanced data and analytics solutions for Fortune 100 companies, and I’m a longtime advocate for business-driven data strategies and best practices. In my current role at Qlik, I’m focused on enabling enterprises across every sector to build the right mix of data analytics capabilities across their people, processes, and technology - to democratize data and deliver valuable insights at every level.