Strategic planning and the big impact of small data

Strategic success doesn't come from choosing the right long-term goal. It comes from moment-to-moment focus and continuous refinement of the activities that move you toward that goal. Facebook was not the first social-sharing site, Microsoft was not the first PC operating system, and Ford was not the first car manufacturer.

Each of these companies shared its long-term vision with many competitors. What separated them was execution.

What is small data?

Small data is data that is small enough for human comprehension: data in a volume and format that makes it accessible, informative, and actionable.

"Big data" is about machines. Small data is about people. Big data finds correlations. Small data finds causation, the reason why something is happening, so you can decide what to do about it.

"Small data connects people with timely, meaningful insights (derived from big data and/or 'local' sources), organized and packaged to be accessible, understandable, and actionable for everyday tasks."
Allen Bond

Why small data powers strategic planning

Setting the right long-term goal is strategy, often described as the mission or vision. Strategic planning is how you get there.

Think of it this way: the mission tells you which forest to head for. The strategic plan tells you the path. Small data tells you whether you're still on it.

Once you're on that path, small data is what keeps you there. As obstacles appear, it helps teams find workarounds and adjust without losing direction. Big data is of little use in the forest.

These day-to-day decisions are made by front-line staff, not executives. They act on data that is small enough to understand and use in the moment. But that data must be seen in a strategic context, or it means nothing.

If the strategy is to grow share of wallet with existing customers, then every metric tied to that goal becomes more important, and data about entering new markets gets deprioritized. Moment to moment, employees should reinforce the activities that lift share of wallet. When attention drifts elsewhere, those activities erode.

Without visibility into small data, and without the strategic context to interpret it, your team is flying blind. Most companies suffer from too much data, not too little. The problem is rarely access; it is knowing which numbers matter and what they are telling you to do next.

How to use small data for strategic planning

Effective small data practice depends on repeatable habits across metrics development, collection, analysis, and reporting. A few principles apply regardless of industry, company size, or function.

• Capture the strategic context. Know the big-picture goal. Every metric should connect back to it.

• Choose metrics that actually drive decisions. Meaningful metrics help teams understand, act on, and evaluate the business. If a number doesn't change what someone does, it probably shouldn't be on the dashboard.

• Keep metrics understandable at every level. The people collecting data, the analysts interpreting it, and the front-line employees acting on it all need to trust and comprehend the same numbers. Reliable, repeatable, and relatable are the tests.

• Lead by example. Management must visibly and consistently use data to run the business. If leadership ignores the numbers, the rest of the organization will too.

• Apply metrics consistently. Avoid gaming the system to look good to leadership or external stakeholders. Inconsistent application destroys the value of any metric over time.

• Think in relationships, not in isolation. Metrics have positive and negative correlations with each other. A balanced-scorecard mindset, where you track how one number affects another, prevents tunnel vision.

• Build sense-making into your process. Analysis and reporting should answer the question: what does this actually mean? Don't hand leadership raw data and stop there. Turn data into knowledge, and knowledge into a clear point of view on what to do next.

• Let your metrics evolve. As needs and circumstances change, your metrics and methods should too. Keep an eye on your baseline so that changes in measurement don't break your ability to compare over time.

How to enable small data strategic planning

Democratize your data. Package it in a strategic context and make it available to everyone in your organization, not just the people who know how to pull a report.

A dashboard tool like Klipfolio Klips does exactly that. It connects your data sources, surfaces the numbers that matter, and distributes them across TVs, browsers, and mobile, so your team knows what's happening without having to ask. Strategy stays visible. Decisions stay grounded. And nobody is waiting on a spreadsheet to tell them whether they're on track.