I usually come straight into a post and go “No, you’ve got it wrong!” but I can’t on this one. Honestly, often times data is the most arse-numbingly boring job on the planet. But then so are many things.
- Waiting in the queue at the supermarket.
- Listening to someone in a café/restaurant/pub who is the most important person ever in the history of human life.
- The 20-minute shoot out in the middle of an otherwise great film.
Boring is a fundamental aspect of life, and sometimes we just have to embrace it.
However, I think data is often labelled boring, when what the proclaimer actually means is they don’t like or understand data and would rather avoid dealing with it.
I get that. There are lots of things I don’t understand. My brain is wired a bit weird, so data fits in well with my personal circuitry. Because of the things I struggle with, I see the same struggle when people try to understand data.
How can we divest data of its undeserved boring label?
The main problem with data is that there is so much noise. It’s almost impossible to focus in on one single problem, that you can understand and work through, without a cacophony of other issues clamouring to be heard. When there’s so much going on, you rarely get any resolutions. And with no resolutions you feel demotivated, your efforts seem pointless and this morphs into the feeling that data is boring.
What usually helps isn’t doing more. It’s doing less. Instead of trying to fix everything at once, pick one thing:
- one process that takes too long
- one report you don’t quite trust
- one piece of data that never behaves as it should
Understand it. Work through it. Fix it. Because the real issue is that when nothing seems to improve, it feels pointless. And when something feels pointless, it very quickly becomes boring. Progress changes that.
Once something starts working – properly working – data stops feeling like noise and starts feeling useful.
And useful is never boring.
If data feels overwhelming or a bit chaotic, you’re not alone. Most teams are dealing with the same thing.
I’ve got space over the coming months to help teams focus on the things that actually move things forward.
And if you know a team that’s a bit stuck with their data – whether that’s processes, their CRM, or just getting things to work as they should – I’d really appreciate an introduction.
#DataQuality
#CRM
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