One Source Of Truth Please

Trust: One of the most important words in Data. You can have all the data in the world, but without trust in the metrics, you might as well be using made up numbers.

And unfortunately, it’s incredibly easy to end up with eroded trust in your data. When different tools try to report on the same metric, they are never the same. And that’s when the questions start, “Why are they different?” and, “Can you make them match?” Answers from the data person/team are usually, “Because their methods are different.” and, “No.”

So how do we build that trust?

Key Takeaway - Align with leadership on one source of truth per key metric.

Sometimes this isn’t an easy conversation. Different teams like their tools and want theirs to be the main source. But decisions still need to be made. The trick here is that it doesn’t have to be all from one tool. You can pull information from multiple tools as long as each metric comes from the same source over time.

Why? Because of benchmarking.

You use data to be more informed and help you make decisions, and benchmarking is the main driver. Knowing if your metrics are up or down vs. a relative benchmark (last month, last year, a test group, or your competition) is far more important than the actual numbers. Which means you should focus less on variations between tools and more on building out a stable foundation of benchmarks that help you spot meaningful changes.

Note: Part of the conversation with leadership should include naming conventions. Words like “sales” or “conversion rate” can mean very different things to accounting and marketing. Align on meanings, set up a glossary, and use them forever.

Without trust, data is devalued. But since we’re in the business of making data MORE valuable, agreeing on a source of truth is a foundational step that can’t be skipped.

I’ll leave you with a question: what challenges have you faced when trying to establish one source of truth?