Tips for Taking your Data Driven Business to the Next Level

Data-Driven Business

Data-driven decision-making is a way to determine a course of action based on quality data. It uses data systematically to assess, test, and improve a program or activity. It is about getting the right data, to the right people, at the right times. The data-driven decision-making framework is perhaps the most powerful business hack when it comes to the business realm. Along the decision-making process, we depend on assumptions, premises, the context, and this is guided through the aim associated with the decision itself. 

The context and assumptions represent external aspects out of the control of any decision-maker. But the premises and the knowledge of the company depend on our data. It uses facts, metrics, and data to guide us through our strategic business decisions that align with our goals, objectives, and initiatives. This process also allows you to do wonders in your entrepreneurial field effectively. For example, a company might collect survey responses to identify products, services, and features their customers would like. They might also want to conduct user testing to observe how customers are inclined to use their product or services and to identify potential issues that should be resolved properly to a full release. Launching a new product or service in a test market can also be taken as an example here to test the waters and understand how a product might perform in the market. It is how a data-driven decision process plays a huge role in lessening your burden or workload. How exactly data can be incorporated into the decision-making process will always depend on several factors, such as your business goals and the types and quality of data you have access to.

Data-driven decision-making also has a vital role to play for the benefit of the society we live in. 

It can help child welfare organizations identify and respond to emerging trends and needs among children and families. For example, if an organization is set out to improve permanency for children and youth, it can do so by increasing the number of available foster and adoptive homes using data-driven decision-making. It enhances and eases the entire process.

Siting another real-life example, think about the last time you searched ‘restaurants near me’ and sorted the results by rating to help you decide which one looked best. That was a decision you made using data. Businesses and other organizations use data to make better decisions all the time. There are two ways they can do this, with data-driven or data-inspired decision making.

Data is everywhere! Today, we create so much that scientists have estimated almost 90 percent of the world's data has been created in the last few years. Think of the potential here, the more data we have, the bigger the problems we can solve and the more powerful our solutions can be. But responsibly gathering data is only part of the process. We also have to turn data into knowledge that helps us make better solutions. We have to do something meaningful with it. Isn't it? Data in itself provides little value. To quote Jack Dorsey, the founder of Twitter and square, “Every single action that we do in this world is triggering off some amount of data," and most of that data is meaningless until someone adds some interpretation of it or someone has a narrative around it.

Data is straightforward facts collected together, values that describe something, individual data points become more useful when they are collected and structured. But they are still somewhat meaningless by themselves. We need to interpret data to turn it into information.

By taking up data-driven decisions, you will make more confident decisions. Once you begin collecting and analyzing data, you’re likely to find that it’s easier to reach a confident decision about virtually any business challenge. Data is logical and concrete in a way that gut instinct and intuition simply aren’t. By removing the subjective elements from your business decisions, you can instill confidence in yourself and your company as a whole.

You can also realize cost savings. There are many reasons a business might choose to invest in a big data initiative and aim to become more data-driven in its processes. One of the most impactful initiatives, according to the survey, is using data to decrease expenses.

By starting small, you can become more data-driven and thrive at your organization. So why wait? Seize the opportunity!