Much is said nowadays about the importance of a company being data driven.
Digital Transformation, Industry 4.0, data science and artificial intelligence are constant subjects in our feeds.
Noting how priceless a complete data architecture is, companies are investing heavily to implement solutions that make them digitally mature. (I recommend this reading about digital maturity).
But is it enough to implement this complete data structure and hire qualified professionals to get a scientific, pragmatic, and impartial data for decision-making?
As you might have guessed... not always.
I found this article that presents a fantastic perspective on data-driven mindset.
The human component cannot be completely removed. The influence of a decision-maker will always be above data analytics and what it provides. That influence is frequently (and naturally) biased.
For example, imagine you finish your long day of work and decide to order food online, because you don’t feel like cooking. You check around sellers online and spot one with a 4.5 rating out of 5 and a significantly short delivery time.
Ideally, you should not use only that 4.5 and the delivery time to drive your decision.
But unless this seller’s products are something you do not enjoy, your decision is pretty much done. You did not define what you want before looking at the data available in the delivery app, so you let the data in the delivery app give you the “best fit” for you.
According to Cassie Kozyrov, that is because once we have seen the answer, we are inclined to pick the most convenient question. If the first thing we do is poke around in our data without knowing what we want, our decision will be, at best, something she likes to call...
Data Inspired.
To quote the brilliant Cassie Kozyrkov:
“Turns out humans interact with data selectively to confirm choices we’ve already made in our heart of hearts. We find the most convenient light in which to see evidence, and we do not always know we are doing it. Psychologists have a lovely name for this: confirmation bias.”
Many people only use data to feel better about decisions they have already made.
This was crystal clear during the last Brazilian elections (and US elections), the voters were very polarized and shared many news, information and data that confirmed their political position and ignored any evidence that was against their position.
(I mean, don’t we still get emails, videos, memes etc. by WhatsApp, Facebook and other social medias from family and friends with “proof” of their political views?).
To avoid confirmation bias, make a pragmatic and scientific decision, that is really data driven and not just data inspired, decision makers should define the criteria before looking into the data.
So, are you Data Driven, or Data Inspired?
