Five things data leaders can learn from a metrics review meeting
There's more to pick up on than just the current state of the business.
I know it's trendy to hate on meetings, but I have to admit: I love metrics review meetings. Sometimes called Rhythm of the Business meetings or Monthly Business Reviews, no other meeting I attend is as information rich and worthwhile as this one.
As data leaders, we often have a deep understanding of the state of the business based on our ongoing analyses and the dashboards we support. We may already know what's going to be discussed. In fact, the content may be lifted directly from our dashboards, or from an ad hoc request we completed the prior week!
But the value in these meetings lies not in the content, which indeed we know well, but rather in the discussion and interpretation. Seeing the shared understanding of the state of the business form, first-hand, provides immeasurable value for data leaders.
The potential for learning doesn't stop there. These forums are a reliable place where outputs from data teams get turned into action — or not! As data leaders, understanding how and when strong data-driven decisions are made is a critical to ensuring our teams' success. It tells us where things are going well, and who might need our coaching to build that data-driven decision-making muscle a bit more.
Here are five things data leaders should be watching for in metrics review meetings:
Data Story Cohesion: Is there a throughline in the review, where each section ties back to an overall KPI (likely revenue)? Or is it a disjointed series of small presentations for each team to talk about their own metrics? Is the CEO / VP / topline Director the only one tracking all the information, or are other leaders engaging consistently with other teams’ content? (Drive data story cohesion with a Metrics Tree!)
Engagement in Data Discussions: What happens when data is presented in the meeting? Is everyone quietly absorbing, or are discussions kicking off to build shared understanding? Do those discussions cross organizational boundaries? (Consider some strategies to stoke data curiosity!)
Data Culture: What's the tenor of data discussions when they happen? Are discussions clarifying and building shared understanding, or using data as a crutch to push their own viewpoint (regardless of whether the data supports it)? Are participants leading with curiosity, or tearing each other down? (Explore ways to infuse growth mindset into your culture!)
Integration of Relevant Data Teams: As companies grow, they expand their footprint of data and insights teams: Business Analytics, RevOps, Data Science, Product Analytics, Market Analytics, UX Research, the list goes on. Is the work of relevant teams represented in the review? (In a CEO / topline review, all teams are relevant, even if only as a blurb in one team's rollup.) And per item 1, are they integrated cohesively into a single story, or pulled in disjointly? (Consider opening communication with other data teams in your orbit, and stop shipping the data org chart!)
Awareness and Prioritization of Data Projects: What open questions have the potential to drive important decisions in 1-2 months' time? Did a business leader take an action item that someone on your team already has deep context on? (Consider sourcing your data projects through observation!)
Needless to say, if you're opting to skip metrics review meetings, you're leaving critical information on the table, not to mention opportunities for future discussion with those leaders.
Over the coming weeks, I'll be diving into each one of these with more details on what I look for, and how I coach teams to a stronger stance of data-driven decision-making based on what I learn. Subscribe below to get notified when each update is published!
Post photo by Pierre Châtel-Innocenti on Unsplash Architecture | Rhythm
What I’ve noticed for years is that across many many leadership teams is a complete lack of ability to articulate a story from the data. Often the leader states what the important metric is and everyone just barfs up other data that jives with that key metric. In short, the decisions that are made are based on data that was curated by the IQ of the leader and not what is actually valuable. When questioned, ego was quickly involved and by the next reorg that person that questioned was gone, by their choice or not.
In multiple companies another LT altitude frustration is the lack of effort to bring new leaders along regarding the way the LT looks and thinks about data in relation to business success. It’s like an unspoken religion that a new person has to intuit by reading the tea leaves. A dashboard that looks like an impending disaster in one company
may read as strong headwinds in another. And the distinction between the two seems to be based on a religion I am simply not part of and operates like the first rule of Fight Club.
Early into my career as a data scientist (in an embedded role), a colleague of mine was astute enough to call out our quarterly business reviews as extremely valuable. At the time I was intelligent enough to see her point and agree with her, but not wise enough to act on much (being in an embedded model does not offer much help either). Fast forward to now and I sincerely miss these meetings. Our company stopped having our quarterly business reviews in mid-2022.
I really appreciate how you have articulated the benefits of these meetings for analytics leaders and resources alike, and what opportunities businesses who do not have them are missing out on. If you're in an analytics role and have the opportunity to join such meetings, do yourself, and your business, a favor and be present at them.