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The Flevy Blog covers Business Strategies, Business Theories, & Business Stories.
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Editor's Note: Take a look at our featured best practice, Six Building Blocks of Digital Transformation (35-slide PowerPoint presentation). Digital Transformation touches practically every function in the entire organization. This thus requires an unprecedented amount of coordination among people, process, and technologies throughout the organization, leading to a difficult Transformation program. The Six Building Blocks of [read more]
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Big data is a fascinating, exciting world. Yet it’s also complex — one that can be fraught with pitfalls if not careful.
With big data, there is always a solution to every problem. It is just about finding and knowing how to use that solution properly. Below are some of the most common issues when working with big data.
Knowing these will help marketers avoid making the same mistakes and bring their projects to fruition!
The most common mistake when working with big data is when marketers misunderstand the problem that data is trying to solve. This is partly because big data is thrown into one bucket. Then marketers discover that they are unsure of what they’re looking for because they haven’t defined the problem.
When marketers fail to define what they’re looking for, how will they know when they’ve found the answer?
This is essential because big data — even if it is clean and organized — is useless if it does not provide value to the organization.
Data analysis requires a clear purpose, which should drive all the decisions made throughout the process — from identifying relevant data sources to analyzing and interpreting them.
That way, the results of the analysis will be able to provide evidence supporting the hypothesis or thesis statement.
Big data is a powerful tool, but it’s also one that can be misused or abused. As companies become more comfortable with storing and analyzing large amounts of data, they need to be careful not to sacrifice security to innovate.
One of the biggest risks is that an employee may steal or release confidential information. This could happen accidentally or intentionally, but it can cause major problems for a company either way.
For example, an employee might intentionally take advantage of their position by using their access privileges to steal data for personal gain.
To prevent these issues from happening, consider using cloud security. This software ensures data is only available to authorized users and everything is stored safely in one place.
The problem with most companies working with big data is that they lose sight of the overall business objectives. They get so focused on the tools — such as allowing artificial intelligence solutions to automate data collection — that they forget why they’re doing it in the first place.
Data is only useful when it helps businesses achieve their objectives, whether it is improving customer retention or increasing sales. If a company is unsure about its goals, it is time to sit down with the leadership team and determine what they are — and how data can help reach them.
When working with big data, it is easy to get overwhelmed by the amount of information marketers must handle. That’s because big data is like a buffet. It’s hard to resist the allure of all those options—and it can be tempting to try everything on the menu.
The key to making the most of the data is prioritizing what the team will work on and what they won’t. This means that marketers can only take on one or two problems at a time. That way, they can focus and tackle them until they resolve them.
By setting realistic expectations for the team, the company can lead itself to a higher chance of success.
Data quality is critical to any business that relies on big data. When working with large datasets, it is hard to know what data is accurate, especially if an organization has been collecting data for years or decades.
Small businesses must have clear standards for what makes good data, so they can be sure that the results are accurate when they analyze them.
For example, they should have standards for how marketers enter dates into a database or format addresses so it’s easy to catch errors. That way, no one has to spend extra time cleaning up data before they start analyzing it. This will speed up the work and save the company money.
Therefore, the best way to avoid this pitfall is by creating standards for how the company handles its data — then following those standards consistently.
When marketers are not careful, they can easily jump to conclusions about the data’s meaning and act immediately. This is especially true if they have limited time to gather their insight and make recommendations.
Unfortunately, this leads to a lack of trust in the analysis and a loss of credibility with the team. Poor insights are often due to a failure to understand how data is collected or an inability to interpret it correctly.
The best way to avoid this pitfall is to ensure everyone follows common practices. Then, they should look at the data objectively and ensure that the team backs up their data interpretation with facts.
Doing so will avoid making rash decisions based on incorrect assumptions about how they should interpret data. Then, they will be able to contribute in meaningful ways.
When dealing with big data, there are many common mistakes that small businesses can make. The most important thing to remember is that big data is not only about the size of the data set — it’s about how the team uses it.
When working with big data, be aware of the common mistakes that can occur. This will allow the marketing team to avoid these pitfalls and get the most out of their big data analytics project.
You can download in-depth presentations on Big Data and 100s of management topics from the FlevyPro Library. FlevyPro is trusted and utilized by 1000s of management consultants and corporate executives.
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