Data Insights Delivered with Mo Villagran, Business Analytics Expert and Author

Mo Villagran is a seasoned business analytics expert and the author of Data Insights Delivered: 7 Proven Steps to Understand Stakeholders, Manage Expectations, and Deliver Actual Value. In this episode, she joins host Ian Cook to discuss the role of the data concierge and the issues she sees in communications between business and technical stakeholders. They discuss how to achieve equal ownership among stakeholders, how to know you are providing value and moving your mindset away from that of an “order-taker”.

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Key Quotes:

“What I have experienced is that the business [stakeholders] are willing to listen. IT, I think they're also willing to listen, but they're so used to give me the requirements and I'll disappear, three months later, I’ll come back. So, it's this working tradition that was never being challenged.”

“The only thing that will make or break a data project is whether you engage with the stakeholder or not.”

“I want people to change their mindset. You are not an order-taker. When people tell you something that doesn't make any sense, or you don't understand it, it's within your rights and good for everyone that you ask them. Take an active approach to say, I would like you to explain your own words; I'm trying to understand.”

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Show Timestamps:

(01:19) Why Mo decided to write a book

(03:39) Who is a data concierge?

(05:31) Achieving equal ownership between business and technical stakeholders

(08:31) The challenges in communication throughout a project

(10:43) The importance of paraphrasing and translating communications 

(12:08) Finding the real problem

(15:08) The minimum viable product in a data project

(19:08) Choosing the most efficient solution 

(22:02) The importance of quarterly goals, versus activity driven KPIs

(23:21) How to know you’re providing value 

(31:23) Mo’s hopes for the impact of the book 

(33:23) Changing your mindset from an “order-taker”

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Sponsor:

This podcast is proudly sponsored by Seek, the leader in cloud-based creation and delivery of industry-focused insights.

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Links:

Connect with Mo Villagran on LinkedIn

Data Insights Delivered, book by Mo Villagran

Connect with Host, Ian Cook, on LinkedIn

Follow Seek on LinkedIn

https://seekinsights.com/