Ready to hire a Chief Data Officer?
The CDO landscape
Gartner statistics warns us that only 50% of CDOs are poised for success.
Recent HBR article by Tom Davenport, Randy Bean, and Josh King illustrated the importance of defining this role clearly to avoid having short tenures of CDOs and repeatedly reinventing your data strategy.
Tom and Randy (see article) described the 7 roles CDO's are typically expected to take on but often there isn’t consensus on the “what”, “how” and “when” things get done so many get lost and find it difficult to connect the dots.
Gartner recently stated 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.
Do you have a succinct connected business strategy?
A successful CDO has to link in well with the various initiatives between the CIOs (Chief Information Officers) , CTOs (Chief Technology Officers), CAOs(Chief Analytical Officers), CDOs(Chief Digital Officers), CPOs(Chief Product Officers) to create connectivity vs tackling data in a silo and building out a data strategy that does not link with the business strategy.
But are all these Chiefs talking the same language?
There are still mixed views on the CDO’s primary responsibilities and thus, handling ambiguity and collaboration are a must have CDO characteristic, but it would be a great idea to align this before adding another chief!
Report by Snowplow listed out that 50% of the overall challenge was to get alignment between the internal customers and having a clear communication strategy with all involved. A successful CDO has to solve the data challenge for both the defensive and offensive strategies.
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).
So, what do I do?
Create a cross functional SWAT team to start with these but plan in time to create an integrated story that creates the transparency on how everything links back to the overall strategy. The process itself whilst quick and intense, is a great way for your leadership team to bond, focus on the big picture and create a collaboration culture. Be brave to add hypotheses and estimates on value. It’s ok to get things wrong and to re-define but it’s critical to start the culture of measuring progress on the data that matters.
Any CDO would expect to start to define this in their first 100 days but giving him or her a platform will accelerate this journey and importantly create better alignment between what is expected of this role against the outcomes. Most CDO job descriptions do state the requirements of having the ability to collaborate with senior management, work within cross functional teams in the organization, lead different data disciplines across architecture, governance, analytics and build out a data roadmap with succinct KPIs. However, the one thing that is often missing is the need to buy into the business transformation overall purpose. It is worth taking time to explain this clearly to find the right candidate who can help change your data culture.
Let’s talk. I can get some of these started.
Useful References
2. Why Do Chief Data Officers Have Such Short Tenures? Tom Davenport, Randy Bean, and Josh King
3. “Are you asking too much from your CDO” in HBR by Tom and Randy
4. The Challenge of working with data in 2021 by Simon Pickerill from Snowplow
5. Gartner’s article: Why Only Half of CDOs Are Poised for Success by Jo Bennett