Ice sculptures and production lines - view on the website
If you want to find commercial value in data, the approach will have more in common with an ice sculpture than a production line.
If I looked at how your organisation uses data and saw most of the effort is automation, I'd say you're running a production line. Taking analytical tools from manufacturing and applying these to other industries has failed more than it has succeeded.
If I saw an enormous amount of effort to answer one question with beauty and grace I'd say you're producing an ice sculpture. The sculpture takes planning, and there's risk. From the first cut with the chisel, you need to know what you're working towards. You don't have the luxury of 'seeing what's interesting'.
You want your data analytics to be like an ice sculpture so that people will engage with the work, not glance over it. Few casually walk past an ice sculpture, and even fewer marvel at a production line.
To deliver on the promise of data analytics, spend more time thinking about ice sculptures and less time about production lines (yes, even if you're in manufacturing).
Andrew
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Want to know more? I discuss why this is hard to implement on LinkedIn.
Here's a short data bite if you want to hear me expand on the idea.