Today, it is not uncommon for companies to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in an infrastructure to enable the collection of enormous volumes of data, which eventually shall be analyzed.
The expectation is that the analysis of these measurements will result in new revelations regarding e.g. customer behavior or business improvement opportunities.Oftentimes, however, these gigantic projects are launched without the leadership team clarifying which business decisions they want to make based on the available information. Consequently, it is also unclear what information is relevant to collect to support making these important decisions.

More is not always better. Without a clear view of what the business wants to accomplish and what decisions need support, the building of the infrastructure becomes a very costly odyssey, which will give an ocean of data, which will not give support in any particular direction. Moreover, if the leadership team does not have competence in how to interpret data, they will soon be in the hands of those who produced the information, without the ability to critically review it.

Measurements create an illusion of insight. However, by clarifying what decisions need to be made, the implementation of measurements can be a valuable component in driving the business in the right direction.