Building a Self-service BI Culture
In this series I cover business intelligence topics such as self-service BI, data-driven decision-making, promoting a data culture, increasing user adoption, and more.
If you missed the last two articles, you may want to start there. In this article I’ll cover the organizational challenges you may face while building your Self-service Business Intelligence Program.
Imagine that all the technical challenges I mentioned in the last article are solved: You have a validated and well-documented data model with row-level security, your data governance processes are working, your back-end architecture is performant and stable, and you’ve selected a user-friendly visualization tool that integrates well into your environment.
What other hurdles might you face and what are some ways to overcome them?
Getting support from functional managers
Let’s assume that you embarked on this journey with support from the very highest levels and have a senior executive as the program sponsor. But what about functional managers? Without support from them, your program is doomed. Functional managers have a lot on their plates and most feel they lack the staffing to keep up as it is. Now you want their teams to write their own reports? They may prefer that this work remains outsourced to the IT department.
Hold a workshop with functional managers to introduce the new program. The program’s executive sponsor must attend this meeting. Begin the workshop by asking managers for their own examples of where the current reporting process is failing and write these on a board that everyone can see. You may be surprised how long this list is. Now introduce the program in a presentation and point to their list every time a feature is mentioned that will solve one of their stated failures. Finally, ask for their help! This is where you set expectations and discuss the need for data-minded people from their departments to participate and become functional analysts.
Promoting your program and expanding user adoption
Ask the program’s executive sponsor to make the new BI initiative a topic at management meetings, company townhalls, and individual performance discussions for their direct reports.
Then create an awareness campaign that includes a project name and logo, branded swag like pens, stress balls, and tumblers. Put up posters in offices with a QR code linking to more information about the program. Put the project name and logo in the Zoom or Teams backgrounds of the current BI team and maybe add something to their email signatures.
The idea is to create awareness for all employees, even if they won’t be directly involved in the program. When their colleagues begin to spend some time in trainings and analytics work away from their normal duties, they will understand why and may even wish to participate themselves.
Identifying and recruiting functional analysts
Ask functional managers to identify data-minded or analytical individuals on their teams to become Data MVPs. Remind them that the work they’re analysts will do is for their own department’s benefit. Individuals that stand out may be those that already use spreadsheets to analyze and share data or those that are frustrated by lack of visibility in the current reporting environment.
You should also have a public call for Data MVPs in the company. Create a form that business users can fill out indicating their interest. Data MVPs should be recognized for their participation with an e-mail signature badge, callouts in company newsletters, a sub-title in the org chart, or other incentives like added vacation time. Partner with HR to come up with ideas.
Ideally, you will identify at least one Data MVP for each functional area of the business. In some departments, there may not be a potential candidate and you’ll need to hire. This may be an opportunity to replace a poorly performing employee with a data-minded individual in the same role. And if that is not an option, you may need to hire a dedicated Business Analyst that can float between any department lacking a Data MVP. This person should not report to IT or Finance!
Although not the fastest, the easiest way to transform into a data-driven company is through employee attrition. Take advantage of every opportunity to add data-minded individuals to the organization. Partner with HR to add analytical skill assessment to the recruiting process.
Extinguishing fears within the current BI team
Before you announce the program to anyone, you should discuss it with your current BI team individually and as a group. Make sure they understand the benefits to the organization and what their roles will evolve into: They will spend less time on report writing and more time on training, consulting, data model enrichment, data governance, and eventually data science. Most on the BI team should welcome this change, especially because you’ll provide them with resume-building training and experience in the more technical areas of data and analytics.
However, some will not be as excited. Negativity toward your new program within your BI team can sink the program. Resistors must be replaced. It may be possible to move a resistor to another department to serve as Data MVP, but they should not remain on the BI team in the IT department.
Do you have other recommendations from experience? Please share them with us!
Daniel Lucas is the founder of THRDparty Advisors which is on a mission to protect private capital from cyber risk, digitally transform portfolio companies, and maximize exit returns. They are IT executives advising PE firms and PE-backed companies through every investment stage. Visit https://thrdparty.com for service details, case studies, and pricing.