data-Curious?

Definition

The exploration and dissection of data for the purpose of

actionable discovery.

The quest to manipulate (and create new perspectives on) numeric (and non-

numeric) information in an effort to find a nugget of insight that could

inspire an idea or approach previously untried or, if already attempted, enhance it.

data-Curious?

Anatomy

A dichotomy of two key personas.

Marchers and Explorers, both valuable in their own right, but exponentially more impactful when blended in approach and behavior.

The movement of Marchers is, by definition, repetitive, never veering from a highly-disciplined and predictable path; the movement of Explorers is, by definition, random, non-directed and exploratory.

If data were a field, Marchers would navigate it in a linear path, cutting a straight line through it to a pre-determined end-point; Explorers would wander through it, alternately moving forward, sideways, perhaps stopping for a time to lift up a rock, never knowing where the end-point in their journey occurs…until it does.

data-Curious?

Relevance

Against the backdrop of a plethora of data to wade through and “play with”, marketers face the real danger of data-fatigue, a form of complacency that snuffs out the drive to dig deeper (and potentially, innovation itself), especially if we expect only a few on our team to pursue this goal and espouse this approach.

To combat this, we need to challenge ALL team members to embrace the potential of data-curiosity, not comfortably abdicate it to the “numbers guys”.

While the “quants” on a team can mentor, challenge and inform our collective pursuit of “insight-through-data”, it is the charge of ALL of us to pursue the answers to questions

like “What If?” and “Why Not?” when presented week after week with the myriad of quantitative and qualitative data-views that are critical to our success.

data-Curious?

Are you…data-curious?

data-Curious?