Decisions Not Data (book) - Lisa Schutz

Decisions Not Data - Lisa Schutz
Why the (decision) revolution won’t be televised






Lisa delivers a punchy “How-To” book based on her successful consulting business practice. It is a guide to using data and analytics to achieve organisational goals and avoid the “Data Trap” that many organisations unwittingly fall in to…..

It is a plane ride book, two hours and your through.

A key message is to ask the question about what decision you want to make - before you plan on the collection and analysis of data - the trap being what does the data tell me, rather than what data do I need to help me make better decisions. She perfectly draws out the different decisions that can be supported by data (operational, product, sales/ marketing, customer) - they key being if you apply the wrong data to the wrong decision and then ponder why something went wrong - stop leading with data. Different parts of the business also need different data and having one data lake may not in all cases be the best idea.


Love this table.


When written in 2015 and published in 2016 - she was already on what happens when customers own their own data (page 39, 66 and 67) and how this will change data strategy.

The sub plot in the book as per the title - decisions led by data is not sexy and not interesting and because it is not a click worthy advertising bate - it will not be televised. For so many therefore it does not become a headline as everyone does it behind closed doors. The impact of the data and where decisions are being made varies across the organisation and this adds complexity to who is actually doing something with data. As per another quote in the book “never confuse motion with action” Benjamin Franklin.

Great point beautifully pointed out that decision and data don’t happen in the absence of people and processes. If you want better decisions, invest in people, process and data.

Lisa points out that data being inside your wall may not be the future of data and therefore building long term projects that assume that data is in your silo misses the very point about a digital business (platform)

Lisa spends time focused on how data will help with (corporate) governance - as well as helping with the decision. Once a decision is make data helps you refine, improve, stop, change - the point being that the data that makes a decision is not the same data to which you check it is the right decision.

If you are unsure of the impact of data and don’t know where to start - this is a good book