News & Updates
Not All Are Created Equal: Evaluating Data Quality
When working to answer a research question or add support to our intuition, it is necessary to assess the quality of our data. Poor data often can be worse than no data, leading to flawed interpretations and misinformed decisions. An important disclaimer here is that most data has flaws and thus limitations. The key is to consider the data in the context of our question (hence why critiquing our assumptions and understanding the full picture of the broader problem is so important) while also weighing the flaws. By doing this, we are able to better anticipate the utility and limitations of the conclusions we draw from the data. In order to evaluate data quality, consider the following characteristics…
Rethinking Your Thinking: Overcoming Biases With a Data-Driven Mindset
As we’ve discussed so far in this series, intuition is important for leaders, especially in a world where information is vast, problems are complex, and decisions need to be made quickly. While it is probably easier and faster to rely on intuition, doing so can introduce biases which can erode decision quality over time.
A data-driven mindset—one that honors intuition while offering a structured method for testing it—can be a practical way to reduce biases in our decision making. It is worth mentioning that it would be misleading to suggest that data alone solves the problem of bias. In fact, a lot of data are subject to bias. This is why we value an integrated approach that leverages intuition as a starting point and bolsters its impact on decisions with data.
Yin and Yang: Intuition + Data-Driven Mindset
In our Data for Good Decisions series, we conceptualize a ‘data-driven mindset’ as a systematic process for integrating metrics and other forms of data to test assumptions formed through our intuition. Approaching challenges with a data-driven mindset is considered a competitive advantage for leaders because it enables swift identification of business challenges and action before it’s too late. By adopting this mindset, we are actively working to minimize the influence of biases (although, it is worth mentioning that we can never be free of them). Now more than ever with unlimited data at our fingertips, adopting a data-driven mindset can help us become knowledgeable data consumers able to draw meaningful conclusions and make important decisions.