Scope Creep Is Not What You Think It Is

For the last decade, many struggled to monetize from their costly data science programs.

The marketing hype has just been unreal. How are you going to be valuable to your stakeholders? The answer is simple — delivering exactly what they need. It can be a dashboard, teaching them how to use Excel, automating reports via email, and maybe a fancy data science model from time to time.

People only demand you to show value when you don’t deliver what they need. Isn’t that strange? You only need to focus on what they need you to deliver, not how to define value when you start a project.

Value is different for everyone. Your CEO might be happy that the reporting system is getting automated by data teams. However, your CTO might want a robust data science program. You don’t have to align their goals for them.

When you work on a project, get as much input as possible from all key stakeholders. Meet with them regularly as the technical requirements might change over time. As they understand more about what data analytics can do for them, they’ll be better at telling you what they need.

Define what they need and offer the best option to achieve that. You’ll only need to be responsible for delivering the options you offer after understanding their problems and needs. Take one project at a time, especially if your company is new to data analytics. Value to them can be as simple as less manual work.

However, bigger companies that have mastered the basic things in data analytics might want you to create robust models to predict sales and trends. The more experienced a company is in data analytics, the more complex a data project can become. Focus on what you can do to help them. The value will come naturally.

Through regular communication, you keep everyone in the loop with the progress and new features. People will have the chance to tell you what they need and what they will need. It’s a great way to understand your users and adjust the course as needed.

If you don’t talk to them regularly, you’ll risk delivering the wrong product in the end. Please just talk to your stakeholders often. It’s such a waste of time and resources to deliver the wrong things. If you talk to them often, it’s also impossible for them to blame you for not delivering because you’ve been listening all along.

Replace “scope creep” with iterative improvements.

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