Does it seem like your company is begging for data-driven decision-making, AI, machine learning, and advanced analytics? A culture shift like this takes education and change management. If you are ready to move through this initial step in the data science journey, here are ways you can gain momentum and make progress when challenging conversations arise.
“That’s not in our budget.”
Identifying an outcome that has ROI or cost savings is helpful to stand up against the inevitable budget questions.
For example, identifying product cross-sell opportunities may increase current customer revenue by 3%. Even with as little as 100 customers, this will add up pretty quickly.
“Our clients, shareholders, board of directors will never go for it.”
Getting a data science initiative approved is not like purchasing software. A single piece of software isn’t going to get you answers to all your business questions. Instead, try shifting your terminology: You aren’t “buying a tool”, you’re “buying a competency.”
This is an investment in creating the foundation to answer important questions. Those questions and outcomes should directly align with leadership’s goals and roadmaps.
For example, an analytics tool won’t give you any predictions. However, an analytics tool combined with analysts that know how to use it could build an analysis that predicts potential churn in your most valuable customers.
“We already tried once…and failed!”
Data science is changing quickly. New tools are making it more accessible every day to gather and analyze data, share insights and implement outcomes faster. While the previous attempts may have failed, they provided great insight into the organizational support necessary for a successful implementation.
Imagine your data scientist created a great predictive model that nobody trusts. This scenario is all too real for many and we have helped companies with this challenge on countless occassions. We correct this by investing in collaboration tools and including team members with deep business knowledge that will not only accelerate the process but ultimately make a more accurate model.
Don't let these challenges keep you from making progress. We're here to help. Let's chat.
