The Data Exists - You Just Haven't Looked Hard Enough
As a high-ranking executive at a Fortune 100 organization, I've overseen my fair share of analytical projects. In fact, my data aptitude is part of what's gotten me into the position I hold today. I've guided major dashboard creation and model design projects (including many
delta regressions
and related projects) for many years, working with people both within my company and contractors who have been brought in to give us a fresh perspective.
So believe me when I say that
somebody somewhere has the data you want.
It's just a matter of finding out
who
that somebody is.
Here's an example. I was working on this dashboard that focused on identifying potential breaking news stories that were relevant to my organization's interests in a particular vertical. Keeping abreast of the news allowed us to change marketing campaigns in certain regions, and my hypothesis was that targeted campaigns would lift our digital impression counts in affected territories.
Out of nowhere, my internal staff told me that were weren't actually tracking digital impression counts, and even had the gall to express confusion about what I meant! So I brought in a tech consulting firm for a fresh look. Some of their junior staff expressed initial skepticism, but the senior staff assured me any fears from the newbies weren't based in fact. They had a working prototype ready for us in a matter of months, and unsurprisingly, their results perfectly matched my intuition about the situation.
The bottom line here is that your technical staff members are talented and necessary for organizational success, but they're not immune to hubris. When a programmer tells you that the data doesn't exist, or that something's "technically infeasible", get a new programmer. You need people with a can-do attitude on your team. You're the executive, you know the business better than anybody, and if you feel strongly as if something should be possible, you probably just need a new data guy to make it happen.
Remember: the data exists, and somebody somewhere has it. It's just a matter of looking to the right people to find it.