Data Discovery: Are you driving without a windshield?

Are you looking beyond your company's numbers?


You don’t drive your car staring at the dashboard. Sure, it provides excellent information. You can see how fast you are going, whether or not you have enough gas, and even find out if the engine is running properly. But, if you don’t look out the windshield, you’re guaranteed to crash into something very soon.


An insider’s look with no external validation




Good in theory, but difficult in reality


This is fundamentally inefficient as it can be near impossible for the average user to track down this information and integrate it into their data analysis. As a result, decisions aren’t made with reference to the best available data. Instead, time is lost digging through piles of static documents and companies are unable to make the most of the sizable investments they’ve already made in market intelligence.

Directions for Success

I’m often asked how this actually works in real life. Offerings that allow users to consume data as a service provide insightful data direct to users in a format that can be easily integrated and analyzed. And the truth is some of the more interesting use cases come from basic, even rudimentary, information like weather. For example, users often look at metrics on sales and wonder why particular spikes or drops have occurred over time. Layering on weather data can show all sorts of information. Perhaps there was a snow storm that stopped people from coming to the store or differences in temperature and precipitation that impact consumption trends.

One of my favorite podcasts “Under the Influence” actually did a show all around the power of weather on marketing. One of the most interesting tidbits was around supermarkets in the UK, which found they sell more ice cream on a sunny, cool day than a cloudy, warm day. When the temperature reaches 77F, ice cream sales plummet. The reason was simple: shoppers worried the ice cream would melt before they could get it home.[i] This type of insight can significantly impact the way an organization handles their inventory and even their marketing approach and it all comes from looking at external data sources.

In the future I truly believe that the leaders in the industry will be the ones who find ways to leverage external data in order to find better insights within their own information. Not only will they gain a better understanding of their organization, they will be able to better predict and anticipate outcomes based on external factors.




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