How to score an early win when thinking of a long-term data strategy?

At Nationwide we were recently presented with an opportunity to create a new control! We needed a preventative data quality control over data travelling between systems across the organisation, to ensure anomalies related to data quality can be proactively found. This is a situation most organisations of similar complexity to ours are facing; the challenge isn’t just setting up controls to find data issues, but in not knowing what to look for! 

The vision was therefore to create a set of controls that act as an electro-cardiogram (ECG) monitor to study the behaviour of data that flows through the organisation, continuously study the patterns and flag anything unusual that lies outside the risk appetite. 

We knew this wouldn’t be a short-term activity, setting up the sort of ECG monitor for organisational data over multiple feeds was going to be more of a marathon than a sprint. It would need investment of time and money and a degree of patience not every organisation wanting to up its game in operational resilience has! So, we thought – the sooner we could show and prove the tangible value that our product would deliver the better.

Within a week we translated the vision into an initial proposal for a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) and the blueprint for our long-term data control strategy - we called this the evolution. We ensured that the MVP aligns with the vision and would promptly allow us to validate or reject our hypothesis.

So what next?

The short version of the long story is that within 4 weeks we managed to bring the vision to life and a successful MVP was up and running in production. We created a live monitor of data that based on previous incident analysis was programmed to tap into key data attributes and characteristics. The monitoring highlights anomalies as they occur, strengthening operational resilience and putting the Society on the front foot when it comes to response to data vagaries.

So ‘HOW’ did we do this?

If you’ve been operating in and around complex enterprise architecture, trying to deliver IT enhancements then you know very well that delivering a sophisticated data control over complex data feeds within 4 weeks from start to finish is no mean feat. 

If you want to know the ‘HOW’ behind this success, then read on…

1.    A clear vision

Creating and sharing a clear and compelling vision was a magnet for momentum. Sharing how the future will be different from the past/present and clearly articulating how our product would make that future a reality helped massively with progress and delivery!

2.    Sprint towards a marathon

Examining data from the Premier League seasons (2014-2015 to 2016-2017), the team that scored the first goal won 70% of the matches. So scoring early was key for long term success. We knew from the start that the road to achieving the vision was going to be a long one, so the best way to keep the team’s morale high as well as the stakeholders bought in to our initiative was by sprinting in the first few miles.  Even though we are not a football team or marathon runners, the principle seemed to work for us! We did this by creating a narrow scope which was still clearly and visibly delivering value. 

 3.    We collaborated!

You are probably thinking I’m invoking a cliché at this point, but collaboration was vital in our success. While we corralled only a small team of key skills to work in a closed knit group we leaned also on people with different skills from across the Data and Analytics community. Our collaboration circle expanded and reduced as and when needed but was always driven by limiting the ask off of people to ‘specifics’ which helped them focus, and solve problems quickly instead of suffering from long term and scattered engagement fatigue. 

4.    Attitude over aptitude 

Working on a quick win, or an early score is a challenge for the team but also a huge opportunity because instant reward means instant boost in morale!

I would be lying if I said I was never once worried we wouldn’t hit the ambitious timescale we’d set ourselves but what kept us going was a coalition of effective people with a positive attitude and a relentless focus on solving problems, hurdle after hurdle!

The whole is greater than the sum of its parts, we did nothing special that can’t be repeated by anyone in the business, as long as there is a clear vision to be pursued; a narrowed scope exists for immediate focus; collaboration is prevalent, and the attitude is positive!