The Client and The Setting
At the time of the assignment, the client had been in operation for about 8-9 years, and had received Series A funding. Despite being a brick and mortar company, it had a very robust technology practice, and had made investments in data collections and dashboard building.
Strong growth in the business had meant that the firm had been collecting a large amount of data.
Client Mandate
We are sitting on a lot of data. We know there is value in this, but having not yet invested in a data practice, we don’t know what value can be extracted from this.
Can you take a look at the data and tell us what we can do with it, and then help us build a roadmap for how we will execute it?
Problem Solving
This was a typical data diagnosis exercise. As is usual with such cases, I embarked on a two-fold conversation. On the one hand, I received access to the company’s data, and started “talking ” to it. Simultaneously, I started my usual series of conversations with the company’s leadership.
I basically asked two questions in my conversations with the company’s senior leaders, “What are your responsibilities now, and what are your plans for the company for the next one year?”. Many of them, apart from answering these questions, gave their own inputs on how they thought the company’s data should be used to enhance the operations.
These conversations led to the initial set of hypotheses, and this led to a “data diagnostic feedback loop”. Putting these hypotheses through the data gave rise to answers, and more questions, which led to even more answers and questions. As the conversations with the leadership continued, a set of initiatives using the data became clear.
Finally, in conjunction with the company’s top management, we settled on a set of problem statements that were “both important and urgent”.
Results and outcomes
The output of the exercise was a long list of initiatives that the company could undertake leveraging its data. This consisted of both improved efficiencies in its existing business, and also new lines of business that could be launched using the data. Apart from this, some collateral benefits such as the use of the data for PR, were also identified.
At the end of the exercise, I received a mandate from the firm to start working through this list of initiatives and delivering on the individual pieces.