Checklist for Hiring CDO
CDO Pre-hire checklist
Here’s what it should cover:
Investment thesis: A connected storyline that supports a purpose and urgency: This should include a prioritization framework (including business readiness) by business lines, geography, clients, products vs services across the following customer/client lifecycle
A committed focus list: This should include a one page prioritized list (top 10) of Strategic vs Tactical Initiatives against the committed business value (estimate or hypothesis).
A high level view on capacity across teams - this shows how much focus is being placed where and an indication on the level of hiring and talent strategy required.
A collaboration model and communication framework across teams to baseline how much change management and communication support is required
Established KPIs that is being worked on alongside the P&L of the dimensions listed in (1&2).
Inside a CDO’s brain
Review the 7 distinct jobs to be done listed in Tom and Randy describe the range of things that a CDO expects to cover. These areas often have a lot of inter-dependencies and thus, it is key to have focus and be collaborative. Whilst not directly listed in this article, the Data Entrepreneur role requires the ability to influence, inspire and enable the day to day data consumers to execute data driven decisions.
Looking at a dozen of CDO roles job description, it clearly calls out the importance of being able to articulate the data ROI and operationalize the data strategy into products and services. Gartner recently published an article calling out that culture and data literacy are two major roadblocks in firms to truly unlock the value of data. Whilst treating data as an asset is often spoken about, the reality is that there is lack of data standards, common processes and appetite to share data, collaborate and create a true high value data asset that can be monetized. and thus, agreeing on the “To do” list alongside a timing framework is key to get the right balance between building out sound foundations whilst driving value and testing the hypothesis.
The Reality
As simple as this may sound, many firms do not have these clearly written down, tracked or link to measurable business outcomes.
To accelerate the collation of the information above, I often treat the exercise as an M&A-type evaluation exercise and get the joint leaders to do a true valuation on your company. Each of these initiatives should be key levers that is driving the transformation and valuation. A well-defined Information Memorandum has to tell a succinct story and forces collaboration to create common hypotheses that transform the company via specific KPIs and a handful of manageable initiatives.
