Data has been called many things, frustrating, insightful, and even transformational. Today, I want us to think about data as a corporate BFF. Think about it. You need to work closely with data so that it can serve up insights into your member's experience/ organizational performance and so many other business areas. You must build trust and confidence in the data and have excellent communication skills to accomplish this.
Here are a few steps on how you can make Data your BFF.
1. A clear data strategy
How can data possibly know where you want to go until you share your destination? And let's be clear about this. You want to share your data strategy that is aligned with the organization's strategy. You also want a data strategy that incorporates a pathway to data maturity (with special emphasis on data governance). Includes talent development to consume data and clarifies workplace adoption of data.
2. The ability to translate data strategy into tangible use cases
For data to be impactful, you have to share with data the problems you want it to help you resolve. Focusing on solving the member problem or reducing member friction are ideal because the entire credit union can understand them.
3. A clear, high-level road map.
If you have #1 and 2 above, you should have this. Like us, data enjoys a good roadmap. Remember best practice for a data road map is to have it fit on one page and clearly communicate the pathway data will be leveraged to improve members' lives.
4. Have a formal data governance program
Many credit unions get overwhelmed with the creation of formal data governance programs. Advice: don't boil the ocean; make a nice cup of tea. Start small. Seriously, incremental growth is how you can move fast!
5. Talent that can translate data into valuable action.
Here is the big step, where data and talent work closely together. This is the area where most credit unions fail. Creating a data-centric organization does not occur organically. A defined plan to infuse data into the credit union combines critical and design thinking in a proactive environment.
To create a Data BFF, take the time to understand your organization's knowledge gaps, fill them up and deliver strategic assets to execute. It will build an excellent and enriching data partnership.
Ready to ACTIVATE
your data?
Then plan on attending the
It's hard to know where to go when you don't have a map,
the same is true with activating your data.
Next Class Starts: May 2!
Data activated by Memorial Day
Perfect time to send more than one team member AND check that
"launched data journey in 2023" box DONE!
We believe that data transformation doesn't have to feel overwhelming or expensive to be impactful. After helping over 600 credit union leaders launch their data journeys, we have identified several consistent knowledge gaps. We have worked hard to fill these gaps with a variety of educational artifacts:
NEW! Read the Data Education White Paper (found at the bottom of the page)