It’s hard to imagine that only a few years ago the big issue with data was getting enough of it. There was an insatiable hunger across the business for more and more information on how to gain the slightest competitive edge. (View Highlight)
This is the idea behind the tenet of operational clarity. The most celebrated teams we spoke to oriented themselves around ruthlessly adding more clarity to the rest of the business. They make sure the work they do - each project and their larger presence - continually turns noise and complexity in to clear and transparent signals for the rest of the organization. (View Highlight)
An organization with high operational clarity feels simple and connected. Simple in that even the most complex processes, markets or environments is easily understood. And connected in that every employees understands the operating model of the business, and how their work directly contributes to bigger picture and what the priorities are. (View Highlight)
Perfect reporting and auditing
One team we spoke to adheres to the concept of perfect reporting - that the minimum number of reports should exist such that each person has all the information to do their jobs. (View Highlight)
This means both a strict process for what new reports get built but also an audit process that ensures there’s no confusion from stakeholders about which reports should be used when. In this audit they look for:
• new dashboards that are duplicate information of another dashboard
• unused dashboards that should be de-comissioned (View Highlight)
Metric trees are an excellent example of adding operational clarity. However, as this example demonstrates, effective metric trees are about more than a new lay-out. (View Highlight)
In this company, the Head of Data was asked by the CEO to help design their new North Star metrics. He sat down with the top leaders one day a week, gradually building out the key high-level metrics for the organization. These conversations revealed key differences in understanding of common terms or metrics that they were able to address through this exercise. The resulting tree showed these key metrics as well as a downstream list of drivers and influences to those metrics that they used to identify top priorities for the quarter. (View Highlight)
A common theme in operational clarity is owning more and more of the company metrics. For one company this meant the data team was responsible for holding quarterly OKR reviews with each department. (View Highlight)
A smaller, but no less impactful, example of adding operational clarity is by those teams that emphasize effective communication. This means making sure their outputs are easily understood, they build visuals that are easy to consume, they use language and vernacular that’s meaningful to the business. (View Highlight)
These kinds of initiatives were all the rage in the 00’s but are no less important now. Effectively communicating findings is one of the simplest and effective things data teams can do to ensure they’re adding clarity not confusion. (View Highlight)
Looking at this from another perspective, I would argue operational clarity is exactly the opportunity many data teams have been looking for. So many leaders we speak to say something like “We can do so much more.” Adding operational clarity is something undeniably valuable that data folks are uniquely positioned to do well. (View Highlight)
One of the biggest takeaways for me was that there is no “3-step process to achieving operational clarity.” We came across so many different tactics deployed by teams at different stages and in different environments it became clear that the mindset far outweighed the specific actions. (View Highlight)
A significant requirement for operational clarity is empathy. To simplify the complex world our business partners are living in we have to understand that. That means we cannot approach operational clarity with the same kind of ‘give me two weeks and I’ll come back with a finished report’ approach. (View Highlight)
A common question we get asked is ‘How do we get approval for this kind of thing?’ The simplest answer for that is: that you probably don’t need approval if you’re solving a genuine problem. (View Highlight)
So start by hunting down the biggest sources of anxiety from your manager, the marketing lead, the CEO, etc. When you have this list, work out where you’re best poised to make the biggest difference by providing some much-needed clarity. (View Highlight)
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