Summary: Businesses collect data to improve their insight and decision-making ability. But, it’s having the opposite effect. Rather than helping, data overload actually hurts decision-making. In this article, we’ll cover 5 steps to help you beat ‘Information Fatigue’, and capitalize on the data you have.

“You know what it’s like having 5 kids? Imagine you’re drowning. And someone hands you a baby.” –Jim Gaffigan

I share that quote because it relates perfectly to the business world’s data problem. Organizations are drowning in data. But…rather than get a handle on the data they have, they just collect more data.

According to Reuters “Dying for Business” report, “One-third of managers are victims of ‘Information Fatigue Syndrome.’ 49% said they are unable to handle the vast amounts of information received. 43% think that important decisions are delayed and their abilities to make decisions are affected as a result of having too much information.”

Isn’t that ironic? We collect data to improve decision-making. Yet, it’s doing the opposite. Rather than improve decision making, our data overload problem keeps companies from making decisions.

The big question: How can you capitalize on your data? How can you take the data you have and use it to your advantage? In this article, let’s uncover 5 steps to get the most out of your data.

Step #1: Examine your data

The two most common mistakes businesses make with their data: They collect too much data, and they don’t collect the right data. They make the mistake of assuming a “data-driven” business is one that collects lots of data. In reality, capturing all possible data will only confuse you, and slow down your business.

“As a web based business it is easy to capture data but implementing the proper systems to ensure you are capturing relevant actionable data is a different story,” explains Matthew Reischer, CEO & CIO of LegalAdvice.com. “It took 2 full years before I learned how to properly tweak Google Analytics so that it was capturing data that we could use in formulating marketing initiatives and product modification redesigns. Capturing the right data as early as possible is important because you can never go back and reconstruct some pieces of data as some activity is only occurring once in real market time. The earlier you begin tracking specific data flow, the more data points you will have to make the most informed decisions.”

Step #2: Put it all in one place

Despite their best intentions, organizations still struggle with data silos. Different departments use different systems that don’t communicate with other departmental systems. As a result, these organizations have multiple sources of data (usually in differing formats). Before they can capitalize on their data, they must get it all into one central location (usually in a data warehouse).

“If you don’t have all your stuff in one place, you can’t do much with it,” says Kumar Mehta, CEO of Blueocean Market Intelligence. “The idea is that corporations are sitting on disparate data sources that are in silos. In order to create an effective big data strategy, corporations must think about how to link these data sources through a unified platform. Where possible, common elements of different data sources should be linked together to enable smart analysis. However, all data must be available for analysis. If analysis is done only on selected data sources, the findings may be partial, non-validated, inconclusive and potentially misleading.”

Step #3: Differentiate metrics from KPIs

All data is not created equal. Once you start collecting the right data, you must differentiate metrics from Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). Many make the mistake of measuring all of their metrics. What’s the difference? A metric shares information. A KPI drives action.

“A KPI is a metric upon which you can take action to change an outcome,” says Ray Major, President at Halo Business Intelligence. “If I want to impact my sales for month, monitoring ‘sales’ as a KPI doesn’t give me any actionable data. Think about it, you can’t impact sales, by knowing where sales are. If you want to impact the sales number, then you need to measure the root cause of ‘sales.’ If sales are a function of the order status, and that knowing how many orders are ‘on Hold’, ‘Back Ordered’, or ‘Shipped’ allows you to proactively take action on a metric that can be influenced. If you see the Back Orders increasing, well, we can have a talk with the team who is responsible for inventory management.”

Step #4: Root out only the KPIs that matter

Now that you’ve separated the KPIs from the metrics, it’s time to filter your data even further. The goal: Root out only the KPIs that really matter. Identify those which push the business needle. These are the ones you need to focus on.

“You can have 20 PIs, but not 20 KPIs,” says Major. “Don’t try to measure everything. It’ll take too long, and you’ll end up measuring things that don’t matter. Despite its MBA-ish name, the “MECE” (mutually exclusive, collectively exhaustive) test will help guide your thinking as you consolidate and refine KPIs. Root out overlap in source data across your KPIs. Do you have three KPIs that all rely on the same underlying metrics? If so, are you merely taking three slightly different pictures of the same subject? Here’s a useful litmus test for deciding what’s worthy of being a KPI. Think about the last time your CEO said: “I just have a minute before I board the plane. Tell me what’s going on.” What did you say? What was the CEO’s response?”

Step #5: Setup real-time dashboards and reports

Now that you’ve identified the KPIs that truly matter to your business, you’re ready to move forward. Now you need to present that data to your key-decision makers in a simple, and easily-accessible format. The best option: real-time dashboards.

“You likely will not have the time to go digging through your data on a regular basis, so create a dynamic, real-time dashboard that tracks these metrics for you,” says Zack Hanebrink, Head of Marketing at MassageBook. “This way you can check-in daily, and at a quick glance, see important metrics so you can make data driven, actionable decisions. When you make it easy to view important business metrics, it becomes easy to get into the habit of leveraging your data to your advantage and getting value from it.”

So, what do you think? Is there anything you would add to this list? If so, please share your thoughts in the comments.