The Democratisation to Good Data

About 10 years ago, I remember this witty analogy: "big data is like teenage sex: everyone talks about it, nobody really knows how to do it, everyone thinks everyone else is doing it, so everyone claims they are doing it"

Now in 2023, I am happy this is no longer how people in the industry feel about data. Substitute "big data" with "Crypto" or "AI" today, that might be still relevant.

Over the past few years, data democratisation has helped beating this barrier of fear and unease in using data

Meaning people are actually using data in the right way now, they use it to actually achieve a purpose, as opposed to simply jumping on a bandwagon because it's trendy, because seemingly competitors are doing it, because they don't want to lag behind.

What has enabled this "Data Democratisation"?

-Culture shift and greater data literacy, over time not just technical/numeric people, but employees in all types of departments have become aware of the power of data, and truly benefiting from it. This huge improvement in data literacy means more right questions are being asked, and more on-point results are being delivered by the executors. Now it's not about showing off something new and fancy anymore, now people expect real, tangible decision-enabling insights.

-Ease of data acquisition and accessibility, thanks to the newer cutting technologies that enable the data gathering, storage, maintenance and updates, in more centralised, integrated and streamlined environments.

-Popularisation of making informed decisions through data. Now no leader would rush to a conclusion or execution without some level of evidence, direct or indirect insight can be produced at ease means the decisions can be made with more confidence, and these decisions can be more easily communicated internally between departments.

-Rise of data visaulisation, from David McCandless's artistic charts to widespread use of Google Analytics and Tableau. By now, countless professionals have likely been dazzled by a captivating data visualisation during a meeting, masterfully presented by a colleague or vendor, leaving an unforgettable impression that lasts a lifetime

Information is Beautiful, David McCandless

Increasingly the business data users are getting smarter and asking right the questions - it should never be "how many rows of records is enough for my database", or "what programming language should I get my team to learn", or any other kind of arbitrary requirement. Users now understand to start from the goal, then assess the methodology. It's more about the "implication", the "so what", less about being able to do a "cool thing" that other players are not, that bring no value to the business.

Occasionally, a meticulously crafted survey with 500 insightful responses may far surpass the value of 5 million rows of irrelevant or partially inaccurate data; and at times, possessing the skill to code numpy statistics in Python offers little significance unless one can elucidate linear regression in straightforward terms.

So where is your company with its data democratisation today?

#datademocratization #datademocratisation #vizability