Data is everywhere, and the world around us has become extremely data-driven. But data is a complex concept that many people and organizations don’t entirely understand. And that’s why there are so many misconceptions about it.
What data leaders should remember is that data is not a project. It goes way beyond that, especially with technological changes and emerging data sources, and leaders need to stay up to date with it. And the best way to do that is through education and learning from each other.
In this episode of the Data-Driven Leaders podcast…
In the new episode of Data-Driven Leaders, Christina O’Reilly welcomes David Dadoun, the Head of Data at Bombardier Recreational Products (BRP). They have an exciting chat about data, data-driven leadership, and what both concepts should (and should not) look like.
*Show notes and key insights below…
Listen to Episode 6: Data is Not a Project
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Data is Not a Project: Episode 6
Key Insights
⚡ Data is the lifeblood of your organization. According to David, data is the most vital aspect of any organization and should be treated and understood that way.
“Data is the lifeblood of your organization. Think of it as your organization having business processes, just like your body has veins and arteries, and the data flows through all those processes [like blood flows through] your body.”
⚡ Data leadership shouldn’t be about politics or control. David believes that data leadership should not be based on politics or the necessity to have control over something. Instead, it should be focused on the organization and its primary goals.
“Very often, leaders like to centralize and control their departments, their functions, and their domains. […] You can’t be that type of a leader. […] Leadership in data can’t be too focused on what they are trying to accomplish for themselves. It needs to be a borderline selfless role because you’re not doing it for yourself. You’re doing data for the rest of the organization.”
⚡ Data leaders need to educate people. David is a big believer that good data leaders are willing to educate other people about data because it’s a relatively new concept that most people know but don’t completely understand.
“One of the big things that the data leader needs to do is to educate, mobilize, and bring people. Because not everybody understands data.”
Episode 6 Highlights
💡 Data is not the system
“If you go back in history, the data leader was purely a technically savvy individual. It started that way because it was databases and ETL scripting. But that’s not everything there is to know about data. Data is transversal. It goes anywhere it wants, whenever it wants, and however it wants.
It means that having only technical knowledge is no longer sufficient to be a true data leader. The way I see data leadership is that, as a successful key player in the organization, your data leader needs to have that business acumen. They need to be able to understand how to leverage the data and how to help your organization find ways of applying it so that you can derive value.”
💡 Keeping up with data
“We [Data leaders] avoid sleep, and we drink a lot of coffee. I’ve got my snack packs. I’ve got my coffee. I’ve got everything that I need to stay awake and read up on everything. I love attending conferences and networking. Teaching and learning from others are ways that I stay on top of what’s going on, what the trends are, and what the hype is versus what the reality is.
It’s very easy to get caught up with all the buzzwords and hype, but it’s important to be able to sift through what is real versus someone trying to sell you something. To me, that comes through reading or following up on a podcast. Networking is one of the key components that helps me stay on top of things — going to those cutting-edge events where you get to see what other people are doing, meeting up with them, and asking them what’s going on in their reality.”
💡 The story behind The Data Kitchen
“Not everybody knows how to decipher the data or how to understand what’s hype versus what’s reality. So, I use a lot of analogies, metaphors, and a lot of stories to explain what data teams do, how they do it, where they are going, and what the strategies are. When I’m presenting to my executives, more often than not, I’ll use stories to explain. I put together something that I call The Data Kitchen, and it describes how an individual makes a recipe and makes their meal. I take that whole chain of events from the farmer planting the seed and growing the potato to it appearing on a shelf in a store and then, the individual coming in and bringing it to their house. And I map it back to the flow of data and how somebody creates a record inside their ERP.
[People] would lose me if they started to describe some engineering concept that I’ve never heard about. So, it’s about taking what you know and bringing it in a way that people can relate to it.”
💡 There are many data and analytics tools out there
“There are so many of them [data and analytics tools] — there’s always something new, and everybody wants the newest thing. But, at some point, we need to stop and think, ‘What are we doing? Are we doing it the right way? Are we selecting the right tool?’ Are we going to invest, and we’re going to be building with it, or are we going to want to change every year? There are a lot of moving parts that make it difficult to move forward. The other thing is having support from the organization to make the changes.
We’re talking about a data transformation at the core of the organization. Whenever you bring in change, it is going to create discomfort. But if we’re not willing to accept that discomfort and live with it temporarily, it’s going to hurt. It’s going to be weird, and we’re not going to like it. But we have to go through those growing pains for us to be able to get to that next level where we’re going to be able to generate all of that incredible value that we’re looking forward to.”
💡 You’re not going to get a big bang with data because data is not a project
“Data is not a project, and people tend to forget that. They say, ‘We’re doing a project for data. We’ll be done in three years.’ But there’s always going to be a new data source. There’s always going to be a new algorithm. We’re always going to be changing systems outside of the data sphere, but we’re going to need to bring that data in there, remap it, convert it, and update it. Then we’ll do KPIs based on the new strategies we’re deploying.
That’s the reality of data. If you think that you can go at it in a pure waterfall approach and have an end date, then you’re missing the boat entirely. […] That’s not a waterfall [approach]. You’re going to be delivering value every single time you output a new report, a new KPI, or a new model. And we need to be cognizant that this is different.”
About Our Guest: David Dadoun
💡What he does: David is the Head of Data at Bombardier Recreational Products (BRP).
💡Noteworthy: David is a huge fan of Assassin’s Creed… which helped him get to know his former employer, Ubisoft.
💡Company: Bombardier Recreational Products
💡Where to find David: LinkedIn