Roommate Rumble: Navigating Decisions with Data and Heart
Nowadays, data-driven decision-making isn't just a buzzword; it's a fundamental driving force behind the success of businesses, projects, and teams. Navigating business decisions can be as tricky as choosing a new, unpredictable roommate. Meet Ray and Di, our eazyBi comic-style cats, who have embarked on a mission to find a new roommate. Their decision-making process is strictly data-driven; however, when it comes to the decision itself, your heart has a say. Through Ray and Di’s adventures, you'll discover the power of data analysis and learn how to use it.
The Art of Asking Questions
In a world saturated with information, the art of asking the right questions is key to getting valuable insights. There is no set of universal questions that can cover all bases. Yes, industry best practices can lead you there, yet leave those general questions from textbooks aside for a moment.
Cat Di had to admit to her friend Ray that she was planning kittens, and the economic factor was also important when choosing the essential traits for the new roommate. Be introspective and ask yourself from all your heart, "What challenges does my team face now, and what are the true goals we have to meet?" Look for down-to-earth questions, honestly observing what matters in your team: start with finding bottlenecks or communication gaps leading to poorly tested releases or what is behind the burnout of team members, and set goals to overcome that before moving forward.
Also, think what would be the best place where you would look for proofs and records to find insights on those questions. Jira and Confluence are excellent tools to track your work, and, most probably, the answers you are looking for are hiding within Jira issues. However, could it be that there is a humble Excel or Google sheet file where crucial pieces of information are stored (even against the company’s standards)? Often, it's the unconventional questions, backed by specific data, that lead to breakthroughs.
Data, Reports, and Your Intuition
Reports are your allies in the quest for data-driven decisions. They provide a clear snapshot of the situation, showcasing bottlenecks, trends, and progress. However, they can not say how exactly to deal with the situation they represent or how to achieve the forecasted progress. Di had to choose between the best matches the report advised; your human responsibility is to decide what to do next.
Steve Jobs once said, "You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backward”, adding that you have to trust yourself–your professionalism, instincts, and beliefs–to deal with the situation when making decisions for the future. Past experiences, essentially data, can inform you about what has happened; reports perfectly show the consequences of all previous decisions. Still, the responsibility to take the next bold step is only yours.
Reports as Compass in Decision-Making
You may wonder why reports and data analytics still matter if they don't prevent you from making questionable decisions or taking ineffective steps. Instead, they give you fast feedback on where you have got, and, as a compass, they show you possible paths. The good and bad news: you will never know if another decision would be better, as you can never travel the road not taken. Yet you can be sure you will always know where you are if you ask for answers from your trustful reporting system. Ultimately, eazyBI is built firmly believing in the “measure, do not guess!” approach.
Di chose her roommate based on data and following her heart; watch the video to find out her decision! And stay tuned for Di and Ray’s further adventures!
We were inspired by Eric Rowell and his Dog Breed Chart; he also shared open-source data of the chart. We transferred data to the eazyBI app to add functionality to the original chart. To learn more about how we did that, watch our colleague Gerda Grantiņa presenting "All Paws on Deck: Discover Data Mapping".
