People, Process and Technology

I ran into an interesting situation while closely observing users' activities. The discussion focused on data cleansing and consolidation within a GSheet to generate a detailed report.

During the interview, we asked the person to act as if we weren't present, using data as usual.

Issue #1 : Lack of skill (People)

The user, representing a specific persona, explained that he had to gather the data each week for a few hours in order to build a spreadsheet with conditional formatting. Only then he can decide who would follow a training or not.

Not mentioning that the time he spent on data consolidation and cleansing was so long that he didn't have enough time to create a convincing dashboard. 

Issue #2 : Lack of process

Across various countries, cities, and departments, each leader operates independently, resulting in a multitude of methodologies, data sources, spreadsheets, and reports corresponding to the number of decision-makers in each department. 

This is not a reliable foundation on which to build a relevant dataviz product.

Before processing or formatting data, it is imperative to audit, evaluate and align processes with the data strategy being deployed.

Now, let's consider scenarios when one of the circles is present or missing:

With Technology: Tools enabling quick data processing, visualization, and access to insight.
Without Technology: Outdated tools slowing decision-making, causing frustration, and limiting information access.

With People: Motivated, engaged, and trained teams recognizing the value of data in their daily work.
Without People: Despite good products and processes, teams reject data-driven decisions, favor outdated reports, and miss the value of data, preventing optimal decision-making.

With Process: Updated processes aligned with BI/Data strategy.
Without Process: Trained teams using data on a daily basis. However, dashboards lack impact, not reflecting reality and providing no value to the company.

In daily work, I always keep this Venn diagram in mind.

Without processes, data products lack impact.
Without people, the strategy will be unsuccessful.
Without technology, tools are ineffective, data are overlooked and talent leaves.

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