People > Tools

I’m about to make a claim that isn’t meant to be a blanket statement, just a general rule of thumb.

Data careers tend to appeal to more technically minded people. And technically minded people tend to be more focused on tools than on people.

I won’t try to back up that statement with anything but anecdotal evidence. Most of us who wind up in some data role love working with different tech stacks and solving problems. This is what excites us about coming to work. That’s not to say most people in the industry aren’t social, enjoyable, or good with people. Many, if not most, of the coworkers I’ve had over the years have been incredible people that have been enjoyable to get to know. What I mean is that we don’t typically make people the focus of our day-to-day job, just something that is a side part of our job description.

But here’s the rub – in order to be successful in the data space, I believe we need to be focused on both tools and people.

This is anything but a novel concept. I see a lot of posts on LinkedIn suggesting the same. But I believe the reason its posted often is because, despite all of the talk otherwise, we still haven’t truly internalized it (looking in the mirror, here).

Focused on People

What do I mean by being focused on people? I could take this in many different directions. There are myriad ways a role in data requires focusing on people. I could talk about understanding user requirements and getting in the mind of business users (I cover this in another blog post). I could discuss communicating effectively with non-technical people. Or I could discuss how to work well on a team of people.

But none of these are what I’m primarily referring to, here. Here I’m talking about seeing your job as people-first, not technology-first; about how we can be effective in a data role because we’re focused on the right things.

For example, rather than (only) working to become more technologically proficient, perhaps we should be thinking about the following. How do we encourage adoption when it’s easier for someone to use a tool their familiar with? How do we advocate for consolidation when the 10 fragmented reports out there aren’t hurting anyone? How do we effectively promote best practices with the not-so-best practices are quicker and have no immediate consequences? How do we encourage ownership of data products when that’s not actually in the person’s job description?

In short – how do we focus on people to enact strategic change, rather than just focusing on the tools in our toolbelt?

I don’t necessarily have an answer to the above. I’m just suggesting we need to think about these things more. Striking the right balance is key. We don’t abandon tools; we enhance them with a people-centric mindset.

The car, or the teenager

Take, for example, a team that is tasked with rolling out Power BI to an organization. The most natural approach is to focus on the tool: Buy the licenses, give people permissions, make the announcement, and sit back. The problem is this could be the equivalent of buying a car for a teenager who isn’t interested in driving. The problem is we’ve focused on the car instead of the teenager.

Sometimes we get lucky, and the teenager is already interested in driving. When that’s the case, we call the deployment a success. Other times, the teenager feels forced into learning to drive. We call that a difficult rollout. Still other times, the teenager is not required to learn how to drive, the car sits idle, and he keeps getting a ride with Mom. We call that poor adoption. In the best scenario, he becomes convinced why learning to drive is a good thing. Then he’s provided with drivers training to be successful on the road. Then he’s handed the keys and off to the races.

Applied to data, this would be my definition of a successful rollout. And I think something like this can only come by making people the focus, not just the tools. I’m sure there are many other examples that could be given.

So, looking in the mirror. Do I think about my role this way? Am I just excited about the shiny toys, but not thinking as much about the people that will be using these toys?

What about you? Do you see your role this way? Consider your recent projects. Have you primarily focused on the technical aspects, or have you actively considered the impact on end-users and stakeholders? What would it look like if our focus shifted to the people instead of just the tools?