For those in strategy and operations, it goes without saying that access to data is critical to success. From tracking leading indicators that may uncover new opportunities to measuring KPIs against expected outcomes, data provides us with objective insight into current and past performance.
And while objective data can also provide us a glimpse into future performance, the best strategy and operations leaders know that bringing together objective data with subjective updates can truly unlock areas of growth within a business.
Noah Mishkin is the COO and co-founder at CraftJack, and has seen firsthand the power of bringing together subjective and objective insights to drive performance and execution.
On this episode of Aspiring Ops, Noah shares his entrepreneurial journey to building CraftJack, and how his early focus on customers gave him a complete view into the current and future direction of the business. He also discusses how his background in architecture helped him bring together the art and science of building a business and thriving in the COO role.
Finding the right balance of subjective and objective information can be difficult. Far too often, businesses fall into the trap of relying too heavily on past data by using predetermined KPIs to drive every decision.
However, as Noah shares, while roughly 85% of your decision should likely come from found evidence or KPIs, there is also something to be said from gut instincts and the insights that come subjectively from employees or customers.
“When you have a KPI, that is based on what you’ve determined already. You’ve said, ‘here’s what I’m going to be measuring to track success or results. But how do you track something that you didn’t ask? How do you get an answer to a question you didn’t ask in the first place?”
When looking for answers to questions you don’t know to ask, it’s important to create a forum and opportunity for subjective narratives to provide direction.
As strategy and operations leaders, we have access to seemingly limitless amounts of data that informs so much of the decisions we make for the business. However, it’s important to also remember that the same data informing our decisions today can also inform the questions we should be asking to help set future direction.
Interested in learning more about CraftJack? Check out their site here.
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