Joel Nantais

I’m in my boss’s office, briefing him on the new dashboard that will greatly increase access to data for everyone in the organization.

Like a slap in the face, he says, “Your data team can’t get any meaningful data.”

To say that this caught me off guard is an understatement. I knew the team was working hard. We had designed and launched several complex projects over the years.

Yet he didn’t have confidence in our data or our ability to provide value.

Genuinely confused, I probed to learn more about his experience and perspective. He needed urgent, reactive responses to his data requests. Constantly, he heard we couldn’t provide the data.

The priorities of the data team had focused on BI, ML, and forecasting tools. These were where the organization needed to be and had justified the increase in resources. Heck, we were following the five-year plan!

Looking back, I overfocused on the progress of our “sexy” long-term initiatives. And ad hoc data requests were not a priority. Only those requests with easy data access were fulfilled.

When you are in a reactive organization, you need to devote resources to that mission. I was determined to change the perception of our usefulness.

We worked to ensure that the team set a new culture of “getting to yes” no matter the effort. We reprioritized projects and held each other accountable.

Before this experience, we didn’t have an exploration mindset. This was my fault. I had delegated specific tasks and requests without spending time to set expectations. I trusted my team members’ expertise (correctly) but didn’t explore the why for declined requests (incorrectly).

As a leader, it isn’t enough to build the right team. You also have to form the right attitude and culture. You have to allow the needs of the organization to set the priorities.

How can you turn it around? If this sounds at all similar to the organization you work in, I recommend the following:

Five whys

This is my favorite tool. It allows you to push the team to understand true limitations.

Stakeholder engagement

Spend significant time with requesters to understand needs. Engage a larger stakeholder group to get inconvenient data.

Domain knowledge

Help the team lean on the subject-matter experts (SMEs), and make the discussions a two-way street. Show them your data, and have them walk you through their processes.

External awareness

Get out of your office. Talk to the people in other offices. Understand their needs and wants.

In organizations that are not built around data science, you need to understand how your work contributes to the overall mission. When in a support role, have a genuine concern about the organization’s needs and problems.

Understand how your tools can provide solutions. Balance long-term solutions with short-term needs. Usually, today’s problem matters more than next year’s problem.