There are no data people

Originally posted on Issue №5 — August 2022

Or maybe I should say we’re all data people. In their book, Creative Confidence, the founders of IDEO and Stanford’s d.school make the case that there aren’t creative and non-creative types of people. There are only people with more or less creative confidence. And confidence comes with practice and adopting a growth mindset.

I tend to agree. And, further, I think you can interchange “creative” with “data” or “analytics” in many of the authors’ points. See for yourself:

“…you might feel that being c̶r̶e̶a̶t̶i̶v̶e̶ analytic is a fixed trait, like having brown eyes — either you’re born with creative analytic genes or you’re not.”

“…opening up the flow of ̶c̶r̶e̶a̶t̶i̶v̶i̶t̶y̶ data is like discovering that you’ve been driving with the emergency brake on — and suddenly experiencing what it feels like when you release the brake and can drive freely.”

“ ̶C̶r̶e̶a̶t̶i̶v̶i̶t̶y̶ Data confidence is like a muscle — it can be strengthened and nurtured through effort and experience.”

Do you look for the best deal at the grocery store (especially the little price per unit sticker)? Use GPS to optimize your daily commute? Spend hours looking at homes you can’t afford on Zillow? You’re a data person!

Growing a culture of data confidence in your organization puts your team in the best position to do data well. What does it mean to do data well? We’ll tackle that in the next few newsletters, following our simple four-step process!