Evidence of value

Here’s another definition of Business value that I’ve found compelling (from Linkedin)

“Business value is an evidence-able positive effect on the performance of your business”. (​Chris Tibb​)

Clearly, this is a well-thought-out description of value. I like it because it falls right in line with the drum I’ve been marching to every morning in these emails.

When talking with stakeholders or customers keep two key questions at the forefront:

• What is your desired outcome (positive effect on the business)?

• How will you know if you got there (evidence-able)?

We get so sloppy with “Value” language because businesses don’t know what they want and/or they struggle to articulate how they would know if they got there.

Without any defined measurables or clear direction, data teams start to just measure “output” as value.

• Dashboard = value

• Pipeline = value

• 100 lines of spaghetti SQL = value.

When no one knows what we are aiming at we are all just guessing if we got there or not.

In order for your data team to generate business value

you need evidence-able positive effect.

As a data leader, there are few things better you could spend your day thinking about.

I’m here,

Sawyer