Tag: Peter Drucker

Posted on in Driving Action with Analytics

Applying “Purposeful Abandonment” to Big Data

I’ve recently been reading “Inside Drucker’s Brain” by Jeffrey Krames. I’ve read some of Drucker’s hits, but I found this book put his great ideas all together in an easy to digest format.

One of the Drucker concepts that resonated with me is the concept of “purposeful abandonment”. He argues that it’s easy to take on more responsibility, do more products, support more customers, but the hard part is the “letting go” part. By taking a concerted and proactive approach to identifying “what you won’t do anymore” one creates the space needed to move forward in the areas that matter.

The concept is surprising relevant when applied to Data Science. Here’s my take on it:

1) Do you really need all those data fields and metrics?
The thrill of Big Data is having no limits on the number of fields that we have in our datasets. With space being so cheap, and an abundance of distributed computing power, there’s no need to scrutinize the fields that we’re tracking. But, isn’t this just a form of Parkinson’s law in action (i.e. Data expands to fill the space available for storage)? With every data field and metric comes the need to do quality assurance, test for face-validity, and understand the underlying quirks. Letting go of those “nice to have” data fields and metrics allows Data Scientists to better focus on the ones that really matter. Less time checking redundant fields and metrics equals more time for insightful and impactful analyses.

Saying No

2) Do you really need all those records?
Just like the previous concept, what’s the big deal? Why not analyze all the data records in our data sets, all the time? There are certainly times when we really need the full dataset, but often this stage can wait until the first exploratory analyses have been done. Sadly, some analysts can get stuck in a mindset of always running analyses on the full dataset. And so, they spend lots of time and effort on using Big Data tools, when they could have used good old fashion statistical samples to just cut to the chase. Less time running all analyses on all of the data records can equal more time nimbly running exploratory analysis to find the hidden gems you’re looking for.
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Posted on in Driving Action with Analytics

Escaping Key Performance Indicator Hell

Buchenwald-100625-14486-Schwerte-hell
Image via Wikipedia

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are all the rage these days.  Many leaders of industry have instant access to their KPIs, but still in their gut they know that there’s much missing from the dashboard.  

The famous Peter Drucker quote “What gets measured, gets managed” rings true here too.  A bad set of KPIs can result in a lot of unproductive busy work, or as I like to call it Key Performance Indicator Hell. 

Hopefully that’s not your situation, but if it is, here are 5 tips for to success that can help you drive performance through KPIs.

Tip 1: Emphasize the word ‘KEY’ in Key Performance Indicators

The reporting tools that have made it easier to present all your KPIs in a million different ways, created a flurry of new problems:

  • Too many KPIs:  By the time you’re reporting on more than 10 KPIs, chances are that some will look good and some will look bad, just due to normal variation.  What does it mean to be doing great in 5 KPIs, ok in 3 KPIs, and terrible in 2 KPIs? 
  • Too much overlap in KPIs:  Often dashboard reports show signs of major scope creep as the report writer attempts to please all viewers.  When dashboard reports contain 2 or more KPIs that essentially represent the same underlying concept (i.e. total widget units shipped, total boxes of widgets shipped, total widgets weight shipped, etc) it makes it distracting for viewers to know what KPIs they are supposed to focus on.
  • Too many options:  Just because it’s easy to report KPIs in a variety of ways, it doesn’t mean that it’s the right thing to do.  (more…)