How to make data analytics work for you
IT Data Solutions
If your analytics software told you to jump off a cliff, would you do it? That classic parental slam on juvenile plans (at least in my home) probably does little to dissuade kids from doing what they want, just as our analytics software seems to be equally ineffectual at convincing adults what to do. That is, unless the analytics simply confirm what we already want to do.
Recent Gartner survey data has marketing executives blaming “poor data quality, inactionable results, and a lack of clear recommendations” for why they don’t trust marketing analytics. But it’s just as likely that the real problem is that they simply don’t agree with what the analytics tells them. Too often, “big data” just means “big confirmation bias,” something I called out a few years ago.
So what can organizations do to move beyond data-driven confirmation biases to true data-driven change?
Blaming the messenger
Marketing analytics is a multi-billion dollar market, but that doesn’t mean customers feel they’re getting their money’s worth. When Gartner asked marketing executives whether their analytics programs were delivering the expected benefits, 54% of senior executives and 37% of mid-level executives said they weren’t, and 19% (of both groups) were neutral on the topic.
