Connections
Take 5
Tableau Software co-founder Chris Stolte examines corporate agility.
1. Don’t fear the user
Agile enterprises accept that the potential benefits of making the data warehouse broadly available will trump the risks of users overwhelming the database or reaching mistaken conclusions from the data. By embracing users and their ad hoc questions, you can enable them to identify changes in the business environment more quickly, which could benefit the business sooner. And when you leverage technology to mitigate the risks, you can be confident in encouraging users to dive in.
2. Encourage corporate curiosity
Aim to provide the tools that build a culture of rich Q&A of the corporate data assets. Most organizations rightfully strive for a single version of the truth, but the agile ones understand that getting there requires disagreement and conversation, and different computations and conclusions drawn from the data. Tools, such as a virtual data warehouse with interactive analytics laid on top, can help people consolidate their different opinions and get everyone agreeing on a single vision of reality.
3. Manage to the outliers
Most analytic tools compile data in coarse aggregates—often this doesn’t allow people to see subtle but important outliers that are the early markers of important trends. Worse still, they are often the most interesting and adjustable aspects. By managing the details of the business and focusing on the outliers, executives can influence the overall aggregates to change. And that is the first indicator of opportunity.
4. Measure, experiment and then measure again
Agile enterprises are very data-driven. Their leaders measure key metrics, change their processes or behavior, and then experiment again right away to determine whether a process is working. Through the use of real-time analytics and ad hoc analysis, an organization is able to perform constant experimentations, collect the data, and then react and change the process.
5. Build trust and understanding
They tie it all together. Reports with foregone conclusions and high-level aggregates don’t build trust and understanding—sharing the data and analysis that drove the decision for change does. By supplying interactive analytics that really capture how the decision was made, you get everyone on the same page and can help achieve complete buy-in.
Photography by Brian Smale; videography by Michilu Gargiulo
