Becoming Data Driven: A Conversation with Sanjay Mathur
May 5th, 2016
Making the shift so that your organization’s decisions are truly based on data and not just opinions can be a daunting task, especially if you don’t know where to start. SVDS CEO Sanjay Mathur recently took time to discuss first steps businesses can take, and why the effort is worthwhile. You can find the full interview in the video above.
Topics covered include advice on some common issues:
- At 0:03, Sanjay goes over types of gut-feel decisions that could be better informed by data. While making decisions with your gut isn’t a bad thing, he says, you need to be sure to then check your assumptions.
- At 1:22, Sanjay talks about how businesses can use data to check their success or failure. It’s important to have an efficient feedback loop, and to be clear on what it is you’re trying to evaluate.
- At 3:09, Sanjay offers insight into which types of decisions lend themselves more to using data. What are the leading and lagging indicators of your business?
- At 4:21, Sanjay explains why marketing is often a good place to start when looking to become data-driven. In particular, he says, social media use cases can provide valuable insights.
- At 5:51, Sanjay discusses the internal data sources businesses should look at. It’s common to start with sales data, but you should also think about what other processes you can instrument; with the cost of storing and analyzing data going down, it’s a great time to look at how to get data you may lack.
What to learn more about building a data strategy? Read our position paper.
