Data Leaders Building and Executing a Pandemic Plan

Amid the ongoing, global pandemic and current state of uncertainty, Chief Data Officers in Southern California met on April 15th to share insights on how they’re balancing the challenges of data sharing and compliance and how they’re initiating data-for-good programs. 

In the first-ever virtual gathering for this community, participants reflected on data shared by CDAOs across all Evanta communities in North America. The survey asked leaders how COVID-19 is impacting their organizations. These are a few of the key findings:

36% are continuing standard business operations at a reduced level

49% expect to return to standard business operations in less than three months 

18% report an extremely high impact on their organization’s revenue

19% predict an extremely high impact on their organization’s budget

Tomas Soderstrom, IT Chief Technology and Innovation Officer of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory facilitated the conversation as town hall moderator. Panelists included Mike Burkes, Chief Data Officer of Ultra Mobile; Rich Fox, Chief Data Officer of Qdoba; and André Vargas, Chief Data Officer of Creative Artists Agency (CAA). While the participants in the discussion came from unique backgrounds, they shared a commonality around data and how its importance in their respective organizations has changed.

Immediate Response

The severity of the pandemic’s operational impact varies from organization to organization, but CDAOs agree their roles as data leaders have become central to the C-Suite. While acknowledging a roadmap for the future is in place, many data leaders say their organizations have identified new short-term needs that are taking precedence over long-term goals. 

Some CDAOs say all organizational decisions are being made by newly created, real-time analytics systems. Other CDAOs say this time of uncertainty has amplified the importance of being able to pivot to accommodate evolving state and governmental guidelines. Top of mind for many in the community is how to be as flexible as possible, while also thinking about how to ramp up operations once directives around the pandemic change.

Impact on Business Operations

Many in the data community explain a shift to virtual communication and connection within their teams has been critical. A few leaders within the community have been tasked with creating new data mapping systems to provide guidance on day-to-day business operations. One leader says the focus has been on getting a factual message across to the public, even working with MIT Media Lab to champion the hashtag #BeatTheVirus. 

And then there are a few CDAOs who say the pandemic has given their organization the opportunity to advance cloud transformation efforts. Alluding to an agile mindset, one leader referenced hockey legend Wayne Gretzky’s famous quote saying, “Skate where the puck is going, not to where it has been.”

Adapting Policies, Trainings, Technologies

Remote work has led to new security upgrades. A few CDAOs say they’ve changed their policies around VPN connection and encryption to keep their internal databases secure. And to maintain efficiency while managing a growing to-do list, leaders have found success in creating quick bite training sessions where analysts can provide instruction to employees, who then provide that same instruction to their peers. 

All CDAOS concede that virtual communication channels have become the new normal, with some even initiating virtual happy hours. Leaders say these new work-from-home environments should also come with a respect and understanding of employees’ time.  

Thoughts from the Community

The Southern California data community agrees that while most of the workforce is operating from home, they’ve never been closer to their teams. They stress that one key to success is acknowledging perfection in this climate is unattainable and an acceptance of that will lead to better outcomes.

Overall, data and analytics leaders predict their roles will become even more vital to their organizations going forward, both in decision-making and developing long-term strategy. They believe the workforce will see a shift. Previously data leaders infused information into their organizations. They now predict that information will be sought out before it can be pushed out.

by CDAOs, for CDAOs

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