Beyond the Dashboard | Principle 2: Adopt a Data-Informed Approach
Stop being data driven. It breeds passivity and dashboard worship. Be data informed: start with a question, state a hypothesis, define the stakes, then use data to pressure test. AI is a sous chef, not your strategist. Data informs. Judgment makes the call. Decide the meal before you open the fridge
TL;DR (for people who believe reading full paragraphs is optional)
- Being “data-driven” is a trap. It builds passive teams who wait for numbers to give them permission to think.
- Data-informed teams lead with hypotheses, use data to pressure-test thinking, and leave judgment where it belongs: with humans.
- “What does the data say?” is the wrong question. Start with: “What are we trying to learn?”
- AI doesn’t have opinions. If you don’t have a hypothesis, AI won’t help you; it will overwhelm you.
- Shift your mindset: data is not the answer. It’s the sparring partner. You’re the one supposed to think.
The Omelet and the Fridge
In Principle 1, we discussed the Data Delusion: the dangerous illusion that if you measure everything, you’re learning something. Spoiler: you're often not. In many companies, “data-driven” means shipping the wrong thing more efficiently, backed by excellent-looking dashboards.