Data vs. Gut Instinct

Napoleon Bonaparte said, “Nothing is more difficult, and therefore more precious, than to be able to decide.”

How easy is it to get a project stuck?  To get to a point where momentum is lost and everyone feels dispirited.  Projects become territorial and politicized and come to a standstill.  Why does this happen?  A fiery cocktail of ego, varying priorities, and personalities.  Project stakeholders have different (usually valid) agendas and ideas on how to spend resources.

So how do you keep your project from dying a slow death of indecision and debate?  In addition to getting executive support,  GET THE DATA.  People can have different opinions but they can’t have different facts.  However, quite often no one bothers to find out the facts!   Data collection can be hard work and may ultimately disprove your own ideas.  However, if you focus on the facts you can short circuit debates that don’t go anywhere and often foster resentment.

Don’t have the data?  Figure out what data you need and start looking.  You may not get exactly what you want, but chances are you’ll have something to go on.  If you figure out what data you need you’ll better be able to set up systems to collect data you need to make better decisions in the future.

So what about gut instincts?  After many years in technology, my gut instinct is right a large majority of the time.  Except when it isn’t.  Those are the moments when, well, boy do I look silly…..use your instincts to validate the data.  Ask yourself, “does this make sense?”.  This is critical because one can’t follow data blindly.  Just ask the people that follow the GPS system in their car – right into a lake!