Six Steps to Success as a Chief Data Officer
Chief Data Officers are on the rise all over the world and in every industry. Organisations are investing more and more heavily in all aspects of data such as data management, data governance, data compliance and data analytics. They are trying to keep up with the expansive nature of data being everywhere, the legislation that comes with handling it, and to tap into the opportunities that data presents.
A Chief Data Officer (CDO) is a senior executive who is responsible for how the organisation utilises and governs their data. Although the role has been around for a few years now, it is still evolving and there are numerous challenges ahead for those taking on this title.
Let’s take a look at some of the biggest challenges Chief Data Officers face and how to ensure success in this important role:
1. Defining the Chief Data Officer role and knowing where to focus
Given that this role is relatively new, the first challenge for any newly appointed CDO is to establish what the role means to the company and the team they’re joining and to identify which areas of responsibilities are most important to focus on. Understand the expectations of those who have hired you and their reasons for wanting to bring you on board.
Some organisations say that they are hiring a Chief Data Officer to capitalise on big data opportunities. Others want them to secure a competitive advantage and to dive deep into the analytics to fuel data-driven decision-making and business intelligence. Some have a strong desire to bring in an external change agent who can drive culture change, digital transformation and modernisation of data systems, processes and tools. Whilst others want a person with the ability to innovate, create new opportunities and find ways to monetise the data.
2. Set yourself up for success
Once you know what the key areas to focus on are, make sure that you have everything that you need to truly succeed. Identify who the key stakeholders are in the organisation and nurture relationships with them. Try to understand what their key concerns are and find ways to alleviate these if you can. Build trust, earn respect and gain stakeholder support for your projects. You will need support at the very highest level, to make a real impact and to move the data agenda forwards.
Find a mentor, advisor or coach who can support you along your data journey. Being at the very top of the data chain can be tough, lonely and overwhelming, especially given the wealth of responsibilities that you have on your shoulders. Everyone will be looking to you for the answers, evidence of real added business value, for ROI (return on investment) on your projects, and you may want someone to support you and be your champion as you achieve your goals. Through our CDO as a service you can partner up with a mentor and feel supported wherever you are in your data journey.
3. Build your team
One of the biggest challenges and obstacles to success for a Head of Data or Chief Data Officer is their team or lack of one! If you’re not careful, you may end up spending a large chunk of your time trying to find and hire staff to fill skills shortages and to build a strong talent base.
You will most likely need a team that includes data analysts, data scientists, data architects, data protection officers and data engineers - just to name a few of the key roles that you will be hunting for.
In order to achieve long term success, it is important to build a robust talent management strategy that includes training, educating and coaching across key areas such as data literacy and data governance. To access both training resources and a talent pool of highly experienced data professional and experts, get started with CDO as a service now. This will save you time hiring staff and trying to find the right training resources for your team, and give you an advantage over your competition.
4. Establish your data strategy, vision and goals
It is incredibly important to come up with a data strategy and vision that everyone understands, supports and can get on board with. First, do a thorough review of where everything currently is and how everything currently stands. There may have been a data strategy in place before you joined, or you may need to create one from scratch. Assess the organisation’s current set up and situation data-wise and then map out what needs to happen in order to move forwards.
Offer clear, open and transparent communication and actively seek feedback and input from your peers, colleagues and everyone affected by your suggested changes and strategy. Make sure that everyone feels heard and that their concerns are addressed respectfully and are taken into account as part of your ongoing plans. Also ensure that everything you do is clearly aligned with the core business objectives too. By doing this you will gain trust and support and encourage people to become your data champions and to help you achieve your goals more easily.
5. Identify any blockers and remove them
There are likely to some big pain points within your organisation that may hinder your opportunities for success. Identify what they are and tackle them one by one. For example: Data silos are common and often prevent or limit data sharing and can highlight a whole host of other issues - from data access, data quality, data integration and more. Tackling this early on to create a more unified approach to sharing and accessing data will prevent much tougher issues to deal with down the line.
Read our tips on: 4 steps to eliminating data silos and also 4 reasons data silos are dangerous to ignore for more help and ideas on this.
6. Improve data literacy across your organisation
As the amount of data we have access to grows, it is more and more important that we all learn how to navigate, understand and analyse it better. It is really important to invest in improving data literacy across the entire workforce so that everyone has the ability to interpret the data they use and see accurately. Unfortunately, poor data literacy is considered one of the core impediments to achieving a data-driven culture and organisation.
With insufficient data skills we risk their being important business decisions being made using inaccurate data, as well as having poor productivity and a lack of ability to innovate with our data.
See: What is data literacy and why is it so important? and our article on 6 major barriers to data literacy for more information about data literacy.
These 6 pointers are designed to help you get started in your new role as Chief Data Officer or Head of Data. We hope that they give you the confidence to move forwards and we know that this is only the beginning of an incredibly exciting journey for you. We know that there will be a range of challenges along the way and would love to support you with each and every one of these if you’ll let us. Contact us now to start the conversation or take a look at our CDO as a service to understand more about how we can help.
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