Empowered by Data

Learn to build an analytics community in your organization from scratch

How to Build a Data Community shows readers how to create analytics and data communities within their organizations. Celebrated author Eva Murray relies on intuitive and practical advice structured as step-by-step guidance to demonstrate the creation of new data communities.

How to Build a Data Community uses concrete insights gleaned from real-world case studies to describe, in full detail, all the critical components of a data community. Readers will discover:

• What analytics communities are and what they look like
• Why data-driven organizations need analytics communities
• How selected businesses and nonprofits have applied these concepts successfully and what their journey to a data-driven culture looked like.
• How they can establish their own communities and what they can do to ensure their community grows and flourishes

Perfect for analytics professionals who are responsible for making policy-level decisions about data in their firms, the book is also a must-have for data practitioners and consultants who wish to make positive changes in the organizations with which they work.

Foreword ix

Acknowledgments xi

Part I 1

Chapter 1 If You Want a Data Culture, Build a Community 3

Why Do Organizations Aim to Become Data-Driven? 4

What Does Data Give Us that Experience Cannot? 5

What Does a Data-Driven Culture Look Like? 6

Chapter 2 What is an Analytics Community? 9

#MakeoverMonday, the Social Data Project that Changes Visualizations and Lives 10

Chapter 3 Building a Data Visualization Community at the USAA 23

Part II 27

Chapter 4 Benefits of Setting Up Communities 29

Benefits for an Organization 29

Benefits for the Analytics Industry 43

Benefits for the Individual 45

Chapter 5 Why Are Communities Important? 49

What Communities Give to the Individual 50

What Each of Us Brings to a Community 52

How to Foster Constructive Connections in Your Analytics Community 53

Chapter 6 Addressing Potential Risks for Your Community 59

Distraction 60

Groupthink/Echo Chamber 62

Lack of Buy-in 63

Disruptors 64

Chapter 7 Practical Guides for Getting Started 67

Purpose and Mission 67

Structure 68

Processes 70

People 71

Activities 71

Templates 77

Getting Started 93

Chapter 8 What Are the Success Factors for Your Community? 95

Specific Targets and Outputs 96

Communicating Your Goals and Intentions 99

Getting External Input 101

Driving Engagement in Your Community 103

Chapter 9 How to Set Up an Analytics Community 105

Phase 1: Planning 105

Phase 2: Pilot 109

Phase 3: Growth 111

Phase 4: Development 116

Summary 125

Chapter 10 Lessons Learned 127

How Not to Do It 127

Who Are the Right People to Lead Your Community? 133

How to Assign Roles and Responsibilities 142

Part III 147

Chapter 11 Where to Go from Here 149

Your Roadmap 149

What Does Your Future Community Look Like? 150

What Are Your Goals? 152

Documentation and Building a Knowledge Portal 157

Automate 159

Delegate 160

Ask for Help 161

Conclusion 163

Index 165

EVA MURRAY is a Technology Evangelist and passionate about helping people collaborate around data. She has built a global community of passionate data enthusiasts and is helping organizations worldwide do the same.

Learn to create a data analytics community within your own organization with this one-stop resource

Empowered by Data: How to Build Inspired Analytics Communities provides readers with a step-by-step roadmap to establishing a data analytics community from inside your own organization. Beginning with why it’s important and what it can accomplish, experienced community leader and author Eva Murray shows you how to build your data community and tailor it to your unique firm and environment.

The author provides examples and case studies of how both large and small organizations have successfully applied her lessons to create thriving data communities. She offers practical advice and concrete steps and activities to build data analytics capabilities in an organization from scratch.

Rather than focus on the technical details behind data analytics, Empowered by Data describes what makes certain data communities great for analysts and how others miss the mark and create suboptimal environments in which to operate.

Perfect for analytics professionals who are responsible for strategy, culture, or operations within their organizations, Empowered by Data is also an invaluable resource for analysts and consultants seeking a greater understanding of how data communities are born and how they grow.