Data BlindSpot
The other day, I came head-to-head with a near accident. An on coming truck was taking a turn, a massive truck, now by the size of it you bet I had seen it. I had done all my math and estimations. It was visible, clear (may I say — impressive) and loud. Thank God for ABS (Automatic Braking System) as what came next nearly spoiled my day (and this post), because mischievously lurking beside the truck on the far end was a sneaky cyclist who was unfortunately spot-on on the truck’s blind spot, and as I’d said, this was a bend, so one would wonder what this cyclist was trying to pull…..sigh……. Neither I nor the trucker knew about the adventurous cyclist and I believe neither did the cyclist know about the precarious position he had put himself. So, our good God and ABS technology created a good ending, however it led me to ponder over how many big businesses find themselves in the same predicament.
With that out of the way, let’s find a way to put data in this mix. Many executives are daily going through metrics, using tools and processes that they’ve heavily invested in to help view all this, whether in real-time or batch. The problem with laws of scale is that what we often see most is what I like to call “Noisy Data”.
These are data points that shout above the rest. They could be good or bad numbers but they are the ‘truck of the day’. They cloud out the seemingly small cyclist, edging him out of the executive chats, too insignificant to hold water, rather inconsequential. Fortunately, unlike my case, these oversights are not fatal and no cyclist would get hurt; however as time goes on, bit-by-bit the small dots get ignored. There are two outcomes for ignoring this:
1. They could be opportunities. Opportunities that go unnoticed and the only time you may notice them is when your competitor has taken over the market;
2. They could be disasters in the making.
It beckons that as you plan and implement you data strategy (BI), make sure you create insight around all possible blind spots. A well implemented BI does not hide these blind spots, it allows one to easily pick out, study, isolate and look for the story behind these small pieces of information; assists you and your team to better understand and prepare for either the oncoming cyclist or, possibly, the next new opportunity.
As management is excited of “Loud Data”, be aware of shy data.
