Day 5: Allocate Budget, People, and Time
This is 2024 Data Team Planning week. Read Day 1, Day 2, Day 3 and Day 4.
Planning requires prioritizing.
Prioritizing requires allocating limited budget, people, and time to what’s most important.
Your tactics will fail to hit your success metrics if you skip this last step.
Today, look over your goals, tactics and success metrics. What will it take to get there?
Think about these three areas:
Budget:
What are your budget constraints and opportunities in 2024? Do your goals require new or upgraded technology? Does your team need training? If you goals require outside help, what budget do you have to work with vendors or consultants?
People:
What are the members of your team currently focused on and what are their skill sets? How does their current focus and current skills align with your goals? What investment is needed in your team to make progress toward your success metrics? Does your team need to hire? What tasks, focus areas, or competing prioritizes need to be removed from someone’s plate?
Time:
The calendar year moves very fast. Budget time now to hit your goals. Based one what you now know about your budget and people consider assigning your goals to specific quarters or time periods in the year. If your goals are dependent on budget or hiring new team members, chart out a timeline on the calendar.
To keep focused and make clear progress, I recommend no more than two goals per quarter. Based on the size of your team, one goal might be more than enough.
It’s possible you will need to go to your leadership for additional budget investment this calendar year. By working through the above three areas you will be well prepared to approach leadership with clear goals, timelines, and validation for the additional funds.
Planning for a new year can be a lot of work. Investing the time into this work now, can save you months of mis-prioritized time and effort. I put together an Assessment and Roadmap project to help make this work as smooth as possible for your team.
I’m glad you are here,
Sawyer
from The Data Shop
