Before you curl up in the fetal position
You are growing.
Fast.
Congrats!
Savored the moment a little bit. In time, you will come to terms with how growth is straining, stressing, or cracking your data team.
Here are 4 ways growth knocks your data team off balance:
1. As business units grow the demand for analytics, reporting, and data will grow. Developing a mature business intelligence plan will help your team scale the insights and data products you can deliver.
2. New business divisions and software platforms mean new data sources. ETL processes that can scale to integrate with new systems rapidly will quickly determine whether your data team is drowning to thriving.
3. When a production pipeline fails more people notice. Downtime becomes more costly as more people become more dependent on your data. Having change control and DevOps processes established can minimize downtime.
4. The team that got you here may not get you there. The number of seats and arrangement of the chairs changes when rapid growth hits. Determining how talent and team will adapt to growth is crucial.
You might be moving so fast you don’t see these things.
It's the growth inflection points that push us somewhere new.
Before you curl up in the fetal position here are 3 steps to take.
1. Clear your schedule for a day to assess.
It might feel impossible to clear your loaded calendar. But it's equally impossible to see the forest when you are face-planted into a tree.
2. Get outside eyes.
Someone who cares more about your success than your feelings. A manager from a neighboring department. A peer at another company. An outside consultant.
3. Roadmap
Yes, roadmaps tell you where you are going. But they also show you barriers and detours. Layout the landmarks and the obstacles. Have your outside set of eyes review it.
You got this. I'm cheering for you.
I'm here,
Sawyer
from The Data Shop