When Deadlines Threaten Data Culture
With small data teams, our days are spent balancing responding to people who need help and contributing to the foundational data structures we’ve built over time. It’s easy to fall behind on larger projects when drowning in one-off requests, so here’s how I (try to!) strike the balance between quick wins and focused work.
2 Goals behind My data roadmap
Build a strong foundation of data: For every team at your company from Finance to Marketing, it’s essential to have structure and integrity in the data. These foundations require timelines to stay on track and accountable to the teams waiting for the new builds. More about sticking to those timelines in a bit.
Maintain a responsive data culture: After years delivering data to clients and stakeholders, I’ve found some of the highest value insights come from timely data investigations on someone’s hunch about an opportunity. These in-the-moment investigations are exciting because some lead to straight revenue gains for the company. I’ve also found that the faster we can provide an answer, the more likely the stakeholder will leverage the data long term.
3 tips to help data teams balance requests
Instead of deadlines, use the “Now, Next, Later”: This roadmap approach organizes work into three sections, starting with the most urgent issues in “Now,” through longer term projects so teams have a relative understanding about how long it will be until their data is available.
Time block for quick wins and favors each day: If the time it takes to run “small tasks” takes longer, communicate and realign priorities. And don’t forget to celebrate the wins with your team and others at the company.
Promote “office hours”: This encourages people to ask all the questions but, when possible, hold off to ping you about them until those office hours roll around.
What do you think: would an “end to deadlines” disrupt your company (in a good or bad way :)? What’s worked for you and your team in building strong foundations while working through to-do lists?
