To gauge your organization’s data culture, ask:
What happens internally when your data show bad news?
In a healthy data culture, the bad news becomes actionable intelligence within minutes. Leaders are informed, they drill down in partnership with analysts, and collaboratively design strategy pivots in response.
In an unhealthy data culture, the bad news gets buried in committee meetings where participants are sending dumpster fire memes back and forth until it’s too late to course-correct.
My business intelligence work sits in the real estate sector and covers:
- Multifamily affordable housing
- Data analysis and visualization
- Spatial analytics
- Dashboard creation and KPI tracking
- Market analysis and forecasting
- Performance metrics and reporting
The aim is that data functions as a strategic asset – supporting business goals, communicating clearly, and building trust with funders and customers alike.
My BI adage: Behavior Follows Incentives
My Approach
- Start with what you have.
- Before investing in new systems, assess your current data ecosystem: Who collects your highest-value (and highest-risk) data? Do those collectors help design what’s captured and how it’s used – do they have skin in the game? Understanding these dynamics reveals where to create incentives for quality, where training is needed, and whether ongoing reinforcement (such as quarterly refreshers) would strengthen your foundation.
- Identify who analyzes data, who prepares reports, who receives them, and how often those reports actually drive decisions.
- Establish shared definitions.
- Is there a single source of truth for every key metric across your organization? Misaligned definitions create confusion, erode trust, and waste analytical effort.
- Build internal buy-in.
- Data initiatives fail without organizational commitment. Work with your teams to understand the “why” behind data quality and see themselves in the solution.
- Establish ownership over results.
- Who is your data quality quarterback? Clear accountability prevents the diffusion of responsibility that lets data problems fester.
- Secure a leadership champion.
- Sustainable data culture requires visible support from the top. Identify and prepare executive sponsors who can remove barriers and model data-driven decision-making.
- Prepare clear, audience-tailored frameworks.
- Different stakeholders need different views of your data. Design reporting frameworks that communicate the right information to the right people in the right format.
Tools & Technologies:
R/RStudio (tidyverse), SQL, SPSS, ATLAS.ti, NVivo, Tableau, Power BI (DAX), ArcGIS, Advanced Excel (Power Query), Yardi, Smartsheet, Salesforce, Measurabl Comply (WegoWise).
h/t John Wernfeldt