Using data the wrong way is often right
Lies, damned lies, statistics, and strategy decks.
Hi strategists-
Yesterday was my monthly Free First Friday, the day each month where I open my schedule for free trial strategy sessions. I got smart this month and blocked off some time to write this week’s newsletter. I didn’t actually write the newsletter during those blocks (which is why you’re getting it today), but I still think it was smart to plan (hope) to do it yesterday.
If you’d like a free trial strategy coaching session of your own at next month’s Free First Friday, and to contribute to February 7th’s newsletter being late, you can book some time here.
The upside to postponing (ignoring) this week’s newsletter until after my sessions yesterday is that I heard a lot of questions that will become future newsletter topics. Like today’s - which is based on a conversation about better integrating data into strategy presentations. Hope it’s worth the wait (I know you weren’t really waiting).
-Mike
Using data the wrong way? You may be doing it exactly right.
“I need to find some data that helps me make this point.”
Have you ever said that when building a strategy? I know I have, and then I went through a period in my strategy career where I swore off the practice, because it’s dishonest and contrived, and can sacrifice the truth for a good story.
But now I’ve come back around, though not for the same reason. When I was early in my career I used to go data point hunting to support a hypothesis I was convinced was right, often to negate some other data I collected in the process that undermined my hypothesis. My objective was to deliver something that was true. Which wasn’t hard - there’s always data available to make any hypothesis appear true. I was dogmatic and a little arrogant (keep telling strategists they’re the smartest person in the room and that’s what happens), and easily convinced an idea I came up with was the right one.
But the job of strategy is not to be right. The job of strategy is to be persuasive - to inspire your client with the confidence to drive action.
So - and this will sound heretical so suspend judgement for a moment if you can - what the data says is less important than the persuasive story it helps build. What’s important is that your client believes the data, not that it’s right. Even if it’s six sigma accurate and your client is skeptical or even unenthusiastic, it’s not going to help you persuade them to act.
So part of your job as a strategist is to understand what sources of data your client trusts. Maybe it’s first party research they’ve commissioned. Or it’s syndicated data from a research company they pay a hundred thousand dollars a year to have access to. Or it’s third party research from a study published somewhere respectable.
I’ve seen all of these sources inspire confidence in a story. And I’ve seen clients reject them all as unconvincing. Which means that it’s not just the source of the data that’s important - it’s also the context. It’s the story the data is contributing to.
Ultimately that’s what inspires clients - a story about their brand or their customers or their future, that they want to believe. If they do, then the data you’ve lined up to support it benefits from confirmation bias. They’re more likely to believe the data if it gives them permission to believe the story they want to be true.
So when bringing data into your strategies, remember that its role is not to be the arbiter of truth for a brand. Its role is to give strength and credence to a story formed through a range of quantitative, qualitative and contextual inputs. A good rule of thumb is that if data is relevant and defensible, include it. If it’s only one of those, leave it out.
Strategy in brief
The job of strategy isn’t to be right. It’s to inspire the client with the confidence to act.
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About The Strategy Coach Company
I’m Mike May and I founded the Strategy Coach Company to help brand and agency strategists get better at their job while doing their job. I provide 1:1 coaching, collaboration, real-time feedback and thought partnership on actual work in progress, because I know that’s the best way to get better at doing strategy, and at being a strategist. You can learn more at StrategyCoach.co, connect with me on LinkedIn, or just reply to this newsletter.