Beyond the Dashboard | Principle 1: Avoid the Data Delusion
In the Data Delusion, we focus on metrics while losing sight of what truly matters. We celebrate tiny, irrelevant wins, creating an illusion of progress. Data without human judgment is just noise – it's time to use it to sharpen our questions, not just track our speed.
TL;DR (for bullet-point lovers)
- Avoid mistaking busywork for meaningful progress by questioning if data is creating an illusion of clarity.
- Data without human judgment is just noise; it should be an input for strategy, not a substitute for it.
- Use AI to sharpen your questions and find real problems, not to automate trivial tasks that accelerate waste.
- Focus on whether experiments fundamentally change your direction, not on small, strategically irrelevant wins.
- Shift your team from celebrating data to making decisions by asking what you will do differently with the information.
The Data Delusion
In the introduction to this series, I made a promise: to move beyond the beautiful dashboards that feed our eyes but starve our minds. We agreed that our modern control rooms, gleaming with data, often create an illusion of clarity while judgment quietly withers.
So, where do we begin to dismantle this illusion? We start with the most seductive and foundational lie in the entire system: the Data Delusion.