More Strategy from Less Meetings: 10 Steps to Implement a Data-Driven Culture for Better, Faster Client Actions

Jack
May 3
5 min read

Updated: May 15

We give off a very fun vibe at Pineapple 🍍. It’s intentional, it’s how we like to work, and it’s part of the reason why clients continue to choose us.

BUT. Let’s get serious for a minute.

In general, a consultant's value isn't measured in billable hours - it's in the tangible results that are delivered to clients. And in the data-saturated world we live in, the consultants who actually empower their clients to use the right data at the right time in the right balance with gut instinct are the ones who will stick around during a downturn.

I’ve seen firsthand how some very established companies operate.

Download the full whitepaper

Client 1

The ~$50 million company wanted to understand their sales performance. A hot topic and one that directly impacts the lives of their sales folks - it’s worth talking about.

The weekly team meeting was an hour long (a poorly run L10 meeting if you’re familiar with EOS). 30 mins or more were typically spent discussing data inputs and potential inaccuracy - bogged down in endless spreadsheets, stakeholders with conflicting interpretations, etc. That shouldn’t be a weekly occurrence, but it was.

Next meeting would be to analyze the data. Now we’ve got semi-acceptable data for the week, let’s see what worked. More spreadsheets and one off analysis. Still more qualitative than quantitative though.

Finally the third meeting on the same topic was about actions and strategy. This is the good stuff. This is the one that drives the company. There was a lot of hesitation around the data though so a lot of the decisions were pure gut instinct and qualitative.

Contrast that with the clients we work with who embrace a data-driven culture.

Client 2

Similar enough size client, similar enough weekly meeting, similar enough story that is attempting to be told - sales performance.

That same 1 hour weekly meeting has 45 minutes of strategic conversation. All the data is correct (or at least 90%+ correct) and everyone has looked at the dashboard before the meeting so everyone was on the same page before the meeting starts.

They understand that the 15 minutes to kick off is just level setting and a few one off analytical questions. Then it’s immediately into actions and strategy for the bulk of the meeting.

Two less meetings, better results, more informed sales team, happier leadership, and faster actions.

There are several factors that go into the contrast of these two clients, don’t get me wrong. But the biggest change that I can see (and that they’ve shared with me) is the data-driven culture.

When everyone from the CEO to the sales reps understands the value of being data-driven, things get easier, they get faster, and everyone can make better decisions.

As consultants, all of us have a powerful opportunity to be the catalyst for this transformation.

The Client Bottleneck: The Crippling Cost of Data Disarray

Think about the inefficiencies you've witnessed in client organizations. How much time and energy is squandered on:

Data Wrangling: Teams spending countless hours collecting, cleaning, and trying to have disparate data sources talk to each other.
Analysis paralysis: Stakeholders debating the meaning of raw data, leading to additional meetings and delayed decisions.
Firefighting: A lack of clear, daily performance metrics forces them into constant reactive mode instead of proactive strategy.
Missed Opportunities: Slow data cycles mean they're often looking in the rearview mirror, relying solely on gut instinct, missing emerging trends within their own team.

The beauty of a data-driven culture is that it allows for that gut feeling to be instantly tested and refined against quantifiable reality. It also allows for people to have a baseline - “if this is going to work, I have to quantifiably say that it’s 20% better”.

If they don’t have a baseline, a goal, and a way to measure it - and seriously, all three - then they won’t allow people to be data-driven.

That applies to sales, operations, marketing, finance, you name it. So whatever consulting you’re doing, be data-driven about it.

The command center dashboard is a great example of enabling a data-driven culture at a leadership level.

The Playbook: Implementing a Data-Driven Culture for Higher Value and Longer Retention

As consultants, we're not just delivering insights; we're building capabilities within our client organizations. Here's a step-by-step playbook you can use to champion and implement a data-driven culture that drives efficiency and results for your clients:

Phase 1: Assessment and Alignment

1. Understand the Current Data Landscape:

Objective: Gain a clear picture of the client's existing data infrastructure, tools, processes, and data literacy levels.

To get Actions and Recommendations for each step, with templates, screenshots, and extra details:

Download the full whitepaper

2. Define Business Goals and KPIs to Measure Them:

Objective: Understand business goals and what KPIs matter most to achieving those goals

3. Establish a "Data-Driven Vision" (with a Nod to Intuition):

Objective: Create shared buy-in for a data-driven culture, emphasizing how it informs and validates gut instincts, and agree on what reports & data are needed for the vision to be true.

Phase 2: Design and Development

4. Understand the Flow of Data:

Objective: Identifying sources of truth and how that data can be accurately represented in a dashboard.

5. Design Actionable and Intuitive Client Dashboards:

Objective: Create clear, visually compelling dashboards displaying KPIs updated at a reasonable cadence (ex. daily - it doesn’t have to be “real-time”)

6. Establish "Dashboard First" Meeting Frameworks:

Objective: Define protocols for integrating dashboards into client meeting rhythms to facilitate data-supported intuition.

Phase 3: Implementation and Training

7. Implement Dashboard Deployment and Access:

Objective: Ensure successful deployment and accessibility of dashboards to relevant client teams.

8. Create SOPs to Enable Data Support at Every Level:

Objective: Equip client teams to have a standard “gut + data” approach to allow everyone to get used to supporting their own goals and companies goals quantifiably.

Phase 4: Continuous Improvement and Sustainability

9. Establish Feedback Mechanisms and Iteration Loops:

Objective: Continuously improve dashboards and the data-driven culture based on feedback from all levels.

10. Measure and Communicate Success:

Objective: Track the impact on meeting efficiency, decision speed, and the quality of data-informed intuitive decisions. After all, this is a data-driven culture now.

A Data-Driven Culture: Better, Faster, and Easier Decisions From Top to Bottom

By helping implement a data-driven culture with clients, you become more than just an advisor - you become architects of their strategic intelligence. You help them:

Gain Immediate Clarity: Their teams develop a shared understanding of performance in minutes.
Accelerate Decision-Making: Data-driven insights lead to faster and more informed strategic choices, validating or challenging initial gut feelings.
Improve Collaboration: A common view of performance fosters better alignment and more productive discussions where intuition can be debated and refined against data.
Focus on Action: Meeting time shifts from data wrangling to strategic planning and execution, where both analytical rigor and experienced judgment contribute.
Maximize Their Resources: Less time wasted on data deciphering means more time focused on core business activities, making strategic moves grounded in both data and intuition.

Don’t just allow your clients to be data-driven, help lead the charge to build a data-driven culture. It creates a measurable environment where things move faster and decisions become better, all with less meetings.

To get Actions and Recommendations for each step, with templates, screenshots, and extra details:

Download the full whitepaper