Businesses want to be insight-driven - or rather, they have to be. The business experts expect from the data experts to extract actionable insights from data. The data experts expect from the business experts to know exactly what outcomes they wish from an analysis. Unfortunately all of these expectations are often not met entirely from either side. A business problem is like an escape room: everyone has to work together as a team and communicate well with each other in order to solve all the puzzles and get out in time.
Do You Want to Play a Game?
Before going further, let’s first look into the concept of an escape room. The idea is that a group of people is stuck in a room and needs to … escape (duh!). They have to solve all different types of puzzles and riddles, find keys and codes to unlock various locks and doors. And all of that within a limited amount of time.
To not make it too easy (or boring) to open a lock, multiple puzzles need to be solved in different ways, and only together do they form the final solution.
Often escape rooms don’t just end when the group manages to get out of a room - they find themselves in another closed room with new challenges. Many escape rooms consist of 3 or more rooms. Very complex rooms try to distract the players from their mission with seemingly important information - which turns out to be no help and just stealing time.
In order to solve all puzzles and escape in time, the group not only needs to think logically - they need to communicate and collaborate very well with each other, from beginning to end.
Can the Business Escape … Ehm …Solve the Business Problem?
Solving business problems and retrieving insights from data is very similar to playing an escape room:
Every room is an important step of solving the business problem
The business impact is getting out of the final room
The different ways of solving the puzzles are the different skills which each person involved brings to the table
Often people come across information or data points which seem helpful, but are actually distractions from solving the business problem efficiently, similar to misleading information in an escape room
The most important similarity is the team. Neither the data experts nor the business experts can escape … I mean solve the business problem all by themselves. They need to communicate and collaborate with each other.
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Forget About “Silence is Gold”
Usually the communication - and I mean all forms of communication: emails, documents, chats, meetings, coffee chats - only starts when the business experts have defined the problem already - by them requesting an analysis. Or worse, a dashboard (for more details, read my post Stop Building Dashboards - Why Your Stakeholders Still Want to Download the Data to a Spreadsheet).
The strategy these teams usually follow is: The business teams try solving all puzzles in the first room and then the data teams take over in the next room.
I have never played an escape room that way - you? Probably because it doesn’t make sense. Not only do the business teams miss out on a fresh and different perspective. All the clues and information they have found in the first room need to be handed over to the next team - which takes a lot of time and poses the risk of forgetting crucial bits or miscommunication.
Ideally business experts and data experts come together as early as possible - maybe even when choosing the mission they want to play together. The mission is the business problem.
Anarchy in the Escape Room
There are more benefits from adopting a collaboration style inspired by playing escape rooms.
In an escape room, there’s usually no hierarchy. In an experienced team, each player knows how to go about solving a room:
split up
search the entire room for clues
inform the entire group every time something is found
read out loud
think out loud
peer review: check with other people in the group if a puzzle is tricky to solve, even though the solution looks right
Sometimes it makes sense to have someone take the lead to move things forward. Especially in teams which are less experienced, some people may need more directions then others. This person is not necessarily THE lead, they are more like a project manager. And they can change for every puzzle or room, based on specific expertise.
More Than a Group of People
By working closely together on the same puzzles, people with different expertise become better acquainted with each other and the different perspectives.
Ultimately, there’s a sense of co-creation, solving a problem together. This deepens the bond between the different teams and motivates each person to keep collaborating closely.
Hi, I'm Nadine. I empower people through comprehensive training and coaching in data storytelling and data analytics, equipping them with the tools and knowledge to excel professionally. If you’re interested in finding out how I can support you in your learning journey, book a free 30-minutes introduction call with me right here, send an email to nadine@mathemalytics.com, or connect with me on LinkedIn.
If you enjoy my blog posts and would like to support my work, you can buy me a coffee.