Data Trends Best Practices

FountainBlue’s April 2 Front Line Managers’ Online meeting was on the topic of ‘One Dot a Point, Two Dots a Line, Three Dots a Trend’. Please join me in thanking our panelists for their participation. 

• Kristen Brastad, Lam Research
• Claudia Galvan, Oracle
• Shruthi Koundinya, HPE
• Nivedita Ojha, CITRIX

Our panelists spoke eloquently and knowledgeably first about how their individual companies leveraged data to address the changing business and technology landscape with the pandemic and its aftermath, and then about the opportunities and challenges around the data itself, from the Validity and Relevance issues to the need to respect the Privacy and Security issues, while managing all the most Urgent needs. Below are some best practices around data trends and management.

Thoughts about data:

• Not all data is created equal. Some data is more ‘sticky’, more ‘transient’, more ‘relevant’ than other data. Plan accordingly.
• Not everybody needs to know all data, so reports must be tailored to individual audiences.
• Look not just on the raw data, but focus on the trends of that data. 
• Data will be relevant in all industries, so all industries must adopt and embrace the technologies and solutions which will produce the volumes of data necessary to deliver quality products and services. 

Below are some thoughts on how to best filter out the large volumes of data generated:

• Focus on the data set which aligns best with the goals. Adjust the data generation and reporting plan as the goals change.
• Create reports on the data which will help individuals make data-driven decisions.
• Work closely with customers to understand their needs to ensure that the data collected maps to the objectives defined. Collaborate to regularly update those objectives.
• Focus on the ‘Vital Few’ – the anomalies and non-conforming data set and information which might tell you about what’s broken, what needs to be fixed, how things are really going.

Thoughts on seeing the trends:

• Consider the urgency of the need, the ‘freshness’ of the data when generating reports on data trends. 
• The data is generated in a report, but the user needs to interpret the report to see the trend. The user must know what data is needed, which data would generate the report needed as well. 
• Ask users frequently for their input.
• Look not just at the data, but also at the root cause of a problem or anomaly. 
• Look not just at the data but on the workflow and how users acquire and act on the data.
• Look not just at the WHAT of the data, but the SO WHAT – what are the implications? what decisions can you make based on the data? how are you doing based on objectives?…

The bottom line is that brilliant and agile companies and leaders are leveraging the hardware and software to solve real-world problems, including the healthcare, operational, logistical, manufacturing, supply chain, and other problems introduced with the pandemic, and in the world which follows the pandemic.

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