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Data Experts Will Become Change Management Leaders

By Mark Van de Wiel, Field CTO, Fivetran

Data experts will find themselves propelled into positions of leadership given their role driving increasingly urgent AI adoption, automation and broader digital transformation in 2024. 

Data gatekeepers already have a mandate to move from reactive uses of data, such as descriptive analytics, to higher-value, more sophisticated and innovative uses of data, such as predictive or prescriptive analytics, which require company-wide initiatives like data centralization. With more data sources than ever and high expectations for organizations' ability to leverage that input, data leaders must elevate their leadership status to help illuminate the role each business function plays in building an effective data culture.

In order to be successful, they will need to demonstrate new skill sets and a deeper understanding of change management. 

Engaging stakeholders

Nearly all decisions a business makes are related to data, yet you will hear many employees say "my job doesn't require me to look at data.'' A lack of clear ownership and responsibility for data among team members means that when opportunities are missed, it's difficult to pinpoint where and why issues occurred or where improvements can be made.

Not only do outdated technologies or practices often leave teams unable to access the data they need to uncover new insights or detect where issues occur, a lack of data culture means that even if insights are available, most teams think it's not "their job" to utilize them.

The first thing leaders must do is show employees and stakeholders how data can help them do their jobs more efficiently. They should begin by asking each department what their biggest challenges are; what their ideal outcomes would look like; and, connecting the two, explain how data holds the key to the solution. Soon enough, employees won't just look at data as the answer to their existing questions, but as a springboard to ask new questions.

Communicating effectively

Data is often treated as a foreign concept by those who feel far removed from it, despite the fact it's really a product, which requires buy-in, usage, maintenance and a good return on investment just like other tools. Clearly communicating early on how data can solve strategic problems for the business will inspire new use cases and help leaders scale data usage in the same way they would with a product.

When data-driven problem-solving starts appearing in the day-to-day life of employees, data will become like any other essential product a marketer, customer service agent or financial planner uses to do their job. Before long, as data leaders model how to effectively talk about data as an asset, meetings focusing on problems will turn into brain-storming sessions about the future, and data-driven decision-making will become second nature for everyone in the organization.

Creating a compelling, actionable vision

Despite most businesses claiming to be data-driven today, common issues around siloed and unusable data are still stalling analytics projects and new technology deployments across industries - ultimately impacting brands' relationships with their customers, and consequently, their profits. Truly data-driven companies that use data in proactive and innovative ways are far more likely to thrive than companies that rely more on guesswork and ad hoc reporting.

Today, the simplest route to a business model where every team member can query company data and interpret the results is enabled by three core technologies that collectively make up the modern data stack - automated data pipelines, a cloud data warehouse and modern business intelligence. Together, these technologies not only eliminate the lengthy and labor-intensive task of integrating all relevant data from diverse and fragmented sources - they also allow for data to be visualized in company-wide dashboards that every team member can view and use.

The more eyes there are on the data, the more questions a business can answer and uncover. When everyone in the organization can query, interpret and act on data in a self-serving way, this creates a hunger around insights that intuitively move the company forward. 

In 2024, data leaders have an incredible opportunity to drive change and innovation by educating those across the organization and repositioning the value of data. With the rise of generative AI and LLMs poised to shift the way enterprises operate, data experts hold more influence than ever - so long as they choose to act on it.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Mark Van de Wiel is the Field CTO at Fivetran, the leader in automated data movement. Mark brings a strong background in data replication as well as real-time business intelligence and analytics to the role. Mark joined Fivetran as part of the 2021 HVR acquisition, where he led technology strategy since 2014. Prior to HVR, Mark had technical leadership roles in sales engineering, product management and professional services at Actian, GoldenGate and Oracle.