Building a Culture of Data Stewardship in Science

Want your data strategy to actually stick? Build culture first Here's how... Don't start by buying new tools. I’ve been working with a durable medical equipment client this year, and here’s what’s clear: Without culture, no amount of dashboards or pipelines will resonate. Why? Because data culture is about people, habits, and leaders. So how do you embed this into your organization? Here are 3 lessons I’ve learned: 𝟭/ 𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗱 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘁𝗼𝗽 If executives don’t use data in their own decisions, no one else will. Data culture has to be modeled by leadership, not just mandated. 𝟮/ 𝗠𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝗶𝘁 𝗽𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 Don’t dump training on employees. Create role-specific “data playbooks” that show how analytics helps in their day-to-day work. When they see the personal benefit, adoption takes off. 𝟯/ 𝗕𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝘂𝗻𝗶𝘁𝘆 Culture grows when people can ask questions without judgment. Setting up a cross-team data club at my client lowered barriers, connected functions, and got more people leaning in. 𝗧𝗟;𝗗𝗥: Data culture isn’t a project.. It’s a long-term play. You will constantly have to embed trust, ownership, and literacy into everyday workflows. Do that. And suddenly the dashboards don’t just look good... They get used. ♻️ Share this with a leader who’s about to roll out another “data initiative.” Follow me for more no-BS lessons on building data strategies that deliver ROI.

Culture eats tech for breakfast in data governance. Here's what a healthy data culture looks like: 1. Leadership walks the talk ↳ They use data to make decisions daily 2. Clear ownership ↳ Everyone knows their data responsibilities 3. Open communication ↳ Data issues are discussed, not hidden 4. Shared values ↳ Quality data matters to everyone 5. Continuous learning ↳ Teams constantly upgrade their data skills The real change happens when: • People trust the data • Teams collaborate on data quality • Everyone feels responsible • Mistakes become learning opportunities Start here: 1. Map your current culture ↳ What do people actually believe about data? 2. Find your champions ↳ Who already gets it? 3. Create quick wins ↳ Show value fast 4. Share success stories ↳ Make heroes of those doing it right 5. Build new habits ↳ One small change at a time Remember: You can't buy culture change. You have to build it. And if you need help, drop me a DM.

Creating a data-driven culture doesn’t happen overnight — it’s something you have to build 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲. After my last post, I got a lot of questions about practical tips we can take to create that culture within our organizations. So here's 4 actionable steps you can take starting today 👇 🔑 Provide easy access to data This is the simplest one. People need to be able to interact with something to see its value. At the very least, have a dashboard for important KPIs that is accessible to everyone in the company. Take the time to design it so it's intuitive and easy to understand (more on data UX later). I've also seen companies use Slackbots as an effective way to push weekly updates to relevant channels. 📚 Encourage data literacy Data without any context is just numbers. Make it easy for everyone to understand what each chart or value means. When in doubt over-communicate and explain exactly the definition behind everything in detail. This can be tooltips, a text FAQ at the bottom of your dashboard, or even a full-blown wiki. Just make sure it's easy to consume and not buried. When you get more advanced, you can offer internal training sessions or office hours. These venues can enable people to ask more specific questions relevant to their job, and even get some hands-on training with how to manipulate data. 🧑🔬 Make data core to the decision-making process As your team is deciding on the next initiative to focus on, bring data to help make your case. And push others to back up their ideas with data. Approach it by discussing a trend or unique segment that might indicate an opportunity. Create a hypothesis for why this data looks this way and what it means. If you can then project how these numbers would change based on your initiative, that's even better. 🎊 Celebrate data-driven wins After you're using data to inform your decisions, use it to help tell a story about new initiatives. Show the broader organization how data-driven decisions lead to success. The more people see data being used successfully, the more value they will see in it and want to join in themselves. When data becomes part of your company’s DNA, it empowers every team to make smarter decisions, innovate faster, and drive growth. What things have you tried to evangelize the importance of data within your organizations? Let me know in the comments!