You’ve probably heard a ton about data in business operations. It wouldn’t be surprising if many conversations were driven by something a data analyst discovered.

However, it’s one thing to just know about data, it’s another altogether to have meaningful conversations around it that lead to positive change.

Speaking at Tech in Asia’s Product Development Conference 2021, Crystal Widjaja, who was executive-in-residence at Reforge at the time, shared several ways for companies to go from just talking about data to capitalizing on it.

(PDC 2023 is just around the corner and we’ve got an early bird sale on right now.)

When it comes to data, product managers and data teams need to be transparent and take the good with the bad – omitting negative information for fear of looking bad doesn’t do your business any good.

Teams need to treat even unfavorable results as valuable insights instead of ignoring or hiding from them. It’s also important that workers feel psychologically safe when sharing bad news. This applies to how data is managed too – if analysis shows that something is going poorly, people shouldn’t feel like they’ll be punished for bringing it up.

With a more comprehensive and accurate perspective in place, teams can focus on overall strategy and collaborate more effectively.

Moreover, Widjaja noted that tracking data in use is important so that time and energy isn’t wasted on something that’s been done before.

“You don’t beat a dead horse during analysis just because you don’t know it’s been looked at before and you’ve already come across this analysis,” she explained.

That said, there are times when a team has the right attitude but the company simply isn’t ready to incorporate a data strategy. According to Widjaja, this usually boils down to two uncomfortable truths: not having enough datasets for proper analysis or not having the right foundation to conduct said analysis.

“[For example], you might find out that months or even years of data haven’t been tracked at all, or the data that is tracked is stuck in a third-party system and the company doesn’t even have ownership of it,” she said.

When it comes to data, whether it’s a human challenge or a wider organizational hurdle, all roads lead to Rome – or, in this case, a company’s products. After all, the whole point is to use of data effectively to make good products great.

Fortunately, product managers and data teams aren’t alone – all it takes is a little guidance to get on the right track.

That’s why we’re getting some of the region’s top product managers and business leaders to speak at PDC this year. If you’re looking to learn more about best practices in data management and analysis for product development, these speakers should give you much food for thought to feed your product-building pipeline the right way.

Remember, without great products, there will never be great companies.