What does our data tell us about what we can achieve?
The decisions we make are shaped by the information closest to us (1), the information closest to us depends on the questions we ask (2), and the questions we ask depend on our perspective (3).
[perspective = e.g. seeing a topic through a product, customer or human lens]
If we change how we see the world our questions will change, then our data and our decisions (4).
But our decisions won’t change if our data is the same, and our data will be the same if the questions we ask remain the same (5).
If 88% of our transformations keep failing (6) it might not be the technology decisions that are wrong, but the questions we ask understanding the need and demand.
If we keep comping up with the same ideas every year and the same ideas as our competitors then its not our creativity failing us, but the data and questions we try to fuel the creativity with (7).
When I talk about a customer-data-gap(10) in organizations and especially now feeding our Artificial Intelligence solutions, it’s not because I see the same world and ask the same questions as everyone else. It’s because seeing the world from a different perspective leads to different questions and for those questions we have almost no answers (yet).
A friend of mine ran a test a few years back. She built a highly customer centric measurement system and implemented it in a part of the organization. But as they turned it on nothing happened. It turned out that she had introduced more valuable questions to the organization, but when they asked those questions they had no valuable data to answer them. The organization was awash in data, just not data that could help answer any valuable questions.
If the data is a mirror to the questions the organization are asking, then what does the data tell us about who we are? And if this data will shape us going forward, are we happy with the lens of the world it is helping us see?
We become the “tools of our tools” (11). Big data is awesome, but it creates a narrow view of a limited part of the world. Thick (8) and rich (9) data are there to help us see more, to not forget that the world is more than our own channels and content.
Sources:
(1). https://medium.com/design-bootcamp/keep-your-products-close-but-your-customers-closer-c991c600ef59
(3). https://fs.blog/mental-models/
(4). https://donellameadows.org/archives/leverage-points-places-to-intervene-in-a-system/
(7). https://uxdesign.cc/curiosity-eats-creativity-for-breakfast-03e96dc74996
(8). https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/what-thick-data-pratibha-kumari-jha/
(9). https://thecynefin.co/big-thick-and-rich/
(10). https://everythingnewisdangerous.medium.com/the-customer-data-gap-520cdf695d68
