Why Chief Data Officers struggle to succeed

The illusion of being data-driven 📊 Every company says they’re data-driven. Few pause to ask the harder question: Is our data actually serving us? 🤔 I’ve seen teams ship beautiful dashboards on stale numbers. I’ve heard leaders quote metrics they no longer trust. That’s not data-driven—that’s "data-decorated". 🔍Real readiness starts when you stop chasing more data and start asking sharper questions. Where did it come from? 🗓️ When was it last updated? ⏱️ Who owns it? 👤 What decisions does it power? 🎯 You don’t need more data to be data-ready. ✅ You need a clear, structured understanding of the decisions being made, the data lineage and transformations behind them, and the quality checks that protect accuracy—so the right signal reaches the final decision-maker. 🗺️🔗🧪 What’s one question your team never asks about its own numbers? Do share in comments. #Gainscale #letspriorise #DataDriven #DataReadiness #DecisionIntelligence #DataStrategy #DataQuality #DataGovernance #Analytics #DataLineage #DataOps #TrustInData #BusinessDecisions

🎯 Stop Building Dashboards. Start Driving Decisions. Most analysts get stuck reporting data. The real impact? Shaping decisions that move the business forward. Here are 5 ways to shift from order-taker → decision-shaper 👇 1️⃣ Focus on the “Why” behind the data Dashboards are tools — not outcomes. Ask: “What business question does this answer?” That’s how you find insights that matter. 2️⃣ Turn numbers into narratives Data alone doesn’t persuade — stories do. Explain what the numbers mean for strategy and outcomes. 3️⃣ Understand your audience’s pain points Executives don’t want details — they want direction. Tailor insights to their priorities and challenges. 4️⃣ Influence, don’t just inform Don’t stop at “what happened.” Say “what should happen next.” Be the guide, not the messenger. 5️⃣ Build trust with transparency Share early, even rough drafts. Early feedback builds buy-in and credibility. 📊 Your role isn’t to report data — it’s to drive clarity, action, and impact. Follow Buzz Data Science for more insights. #DataAnalytics #DecisionMaking #BusinessIntelligence #StorytellingWithData #DataDriven #AnalyticsStrategy #Leadership #DashboardDesign #DataVisualization #InsightDriven

Dashboards were the rage in the 2000s. Every company and government wanted one. Then came the era of bad dashboards: poor data pipelines, vanity metrics, and interfaces that looked slick but hid the real bottlenecks. We celebrated wins and ignored what mattered.  In public policy, bad dashboards can create blind spots, resulting in serious policy failures. Governments today are swimming in data from open-source dashboards to satellite feeds and social media trends. Yet many leaders still lament the absence of actionable insights – the kind that actually tells them what’s working, what’s not, and where to intervene.  In this new piece with brilliant colleagues at the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, we unpack what it really takes to build dashboards that drive outcomes - not just optics. The kind that helps leaders cut through the noise, see reality clearly, and make decisions that truly change outcomes.  James Wilson Mary Wamaitha Justin To Kurt McLauchlan #DataDrivenGovernance #PublicPolicy #DigitalTransformation #DataForGood

In many enterprises, performance dashboards look impressive — but behind those sleek visuals, 𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗮 𝘁𝗿𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝘀𝗶𝗹𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗹𝘆 𝗲𝗿𝗼𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴. When numbers change overnight, when one team’s “success metric” doesn’t match another’s — it’s not a reporting issue. It’s a lineage issue. True visibility isn’t about the number of dashboards. It’s about understanding the story behind every number — where it came from, how it changed, and who’s accountable. Because when KPIs shift without explanation, confidence collapses — and leadership decisions stall. 𝗕𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱 𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗮 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝘁𝗿𝘂𝘀𝘁. Not through more reports, but through reliable lineage, consistency, and governance. #DataIntegrity #DataGovernance #BusinessIntelligence #Analytics #DigitalTransformation #DataTrust #AnalytixHub

💬 Why Most Analytics Teams Struggle to Drive Business Impact I’ve seen this happen more times than I can count. Smart people. Great tools. Beautiful dashboards. And yet… no real business change. The reports look good. The insights sound solid. But when you ask, “So what should we do now?” - things suddenly go quiet. That’s when you realize - the problem isn’t the data. It’s the disconnect. Analytics teams often speak in numbers. Business teams think in actions. Somewhere in between, the impact just gets lost. Here’s what I’ve learned over the years 👇 1️⃣ We talk too much about data quality and too little about data relevance. Clean numbers mean nothing if they don’t answer the right question. 2️⃣ Dashboards don’t drive action - people do. A metric is only useful if someone understands why it matters. 3️⃣ Communication is the real superpower. According to Harvard Business Review, only 23% of leaders say their analytics teams communicate effectively. https://lnkd.in/giWtTT4v The best analysts I’ve worked with? They don’t just report what happened. They help you see what to do next. At some point, I stopped thinking of analytics as a numbers job - and started seeing it as a storytelling job with data as the language. What do you think? Why do you think so many analytics teams struggle to make a real impact? #Analytics #DataDriven #Leadership #DecisionIntelligence #BusinessImpact

Back to Basics: Turning Data into Real Decisions We have dashboards, drill-downs, and every chart type known to humanity. Data isn’t the problem. Interpretation and action are. The companies that survived 50–100 years did something simple: They understood their business, listened to teams closest to the ground, and made decisions based on context, not just numbers. This is why mid-level managers are essential. They translate data into real-world meaning. Data = What happened Information = Why it matters Action = What we do next (this is where experience counts) Let’s go back to those basics. Strengthen interpretation, not just visualization.

𝗬𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗮 𝗿𝗲𝗳𝗹𝗲𝗰𝘁𝘀 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝘆: 𝗪𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗯𝗲 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗱 𝗼𝗳 𝗶𝘁 𝗽𝘂𝗯𝗹𝗶𝗰𝗹𝘆? Imagine walking down your city's busiest street and finding your main business dashboard up on a giant screen, showing every KPI, every mismatch and chart no one really trusts. Would you feel proud, hide or look away? 🙈 𝗦𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝘆 is the big word, turning it real is the real challenge. Business Intelligence and data analytics often fall down the priority list: teams, clients and urgent issues require attention. 📊 But 𝗗𝗮𝘁𝗮 𝗶𝘀𝗻'𝘁 𝗼𝗻𝗹𝘆 𝗮 𝘀𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗲𝗻 𝗳𝘂𝗹𝗹 𝗼𝗳 𝗻𝘂𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿𝘀! 🪞 It is, above all, 𝗮 𝗺𝗶𝗿𝗿𝗼𝗿 𝗼𝗳 𝗵𝗼𝘄 𝘄𝗲𝗹𝗹 𝗮 𝗯𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗻𝗱𝘀 𝗶𝘁𝘀𝗲𝗹𝗳. I reviewed a dashboard that showed growth, but ignored churn ➡️ False optimism. If KPIs are aligned, strategy is aligned. When data tell a cohesive story, teams act proactively and in coherence. And when dashboards can guide decisions, leaders move faster and with confidence. 𝗚𝗼𝗼𝗱 𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗹𝘆𝘁𝗶𝗰𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘄𝗲𝗹𝗹 𝗰𝗿𝗮𝗳𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗱𝗮𝘀𝗵𝗯𝗼𝗮𝗿𝗱𝘀 𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗻 𝘁𝗿𝘂𝘀𝘁. 👉 If yours went public tomorrow, would they inspire confidence or spark questions? #DataAnalytics #BusinessIntelligence #KPIs #Strategy #BusinessInsights

I’m going through my first EOY cycle in analytics, and I’ve noticed something interesting: The closer we get to December, the more the request for reports increases (and so does the tone of urgency). Leadership suddenly needs more real-time breakdowns, more frequent trend checks, more “are we still on track to reach goal xyz?” moments. Not because anything new is happening, but because the window for adjustments is closing and the deadline to reach management goals is rapidly approaching. At the same time, the data teams are under even more pressure: Supporting last-minute steering for this year, while also preparing foundational analyses for NEXT year’s strategy discussions. Two accountability cycles colliding at once. Plus, you know, the normal day-to-day stuff. What this reveals is less about the process and more about timing: Data becomes urgent (even indispensable in the decision making process!) because the visibility increases. There’s a spotlight approaching when leadership has to answer for how the past year has gone and what they’ll plan to do in the upcoming one. Don’t get me wrong, I do appreciate the increasing awareness of how important data is to steer and make good decisions. But I also think we could maybe move up this realization to the beginning of the year and then incorporate it into daily workflows and decision cycles. So I’ll definitely be taking this learning into the next year by improving three main things: 1. Data accessibility - include the data that’s being requested now into regular reportings. 2. Interpretation maturity - make sure that the teams understand what the data means so they can feel confident using it for decision making. 3. Visibility timing - Accountability shouldn’t be seasonal. While I’m not the one that the reports are being send to, I’ll do my best to highlight emerging trends regularly so there’s time to actually do something about it. My focus will be on building the right steering tools - the ones teams and management actually use throughout the year, not just in Q4. If the tools work in March, there won’t have to be a fire drill in December (or so I hope. I’ll report back next year!) #DataAnalytics #PeopleAnalytics 👋 I’m Anna-Sophie Galley 🐋 . I turn chaos into charts and feelings into findings - so researchers and analysts can do sharper, more impactful work. Follow if your favorite word is “why”, and your second is “prove it.”

We often think that with enough data, the right decision will reveal itself. But that’s not how it works. Data shows what happened. Only people can decide why it matters, and what to do next. The best leaders don’t just look at dashboards. T hey connect context, experience, and intuition to what the data is telling them. Because insight isn’t automatic. It’s human. #datastream #riskmanagement #dataquality 

Tired of making decisions based on intuition or gut feeling? In today's fast-paced world, relying solely on these can lead to missed opportunities and costly mistakes. The key to success lies in embracing data-driven decision making. Data provides concrete evidence, enabling you to: * **Identify Trends:** Uncover hidden patterns and predict future outcomes. * **Mitigate Risks:** Make informed choices to minimize potential losses. * **Optimize Performance:** Fine-tune strategies for maximum impact. By leveraging data analytics, you can move from reactive to proactive, transforming your decision-making process into a powerful engine for growth and innovation. What data sources do you find most valuable for your business? Share your insights in the comments! #datamanagement #datadriven #decisionmaking #analytics #businessintelligence #strategy #innovation