Data is for action When deciding whether or not to collect a piece of data, there is a simple question that will help you decide: “What action will I take on this data, either immediately or in the long-term?” If you can’t answer that question clearly, then you don’t need to collect that data. (Note: …
Have you shopped yourself? I’ve always been fascinated by the “secret shopper” concept. (Maybe it’s because I worked retail through high school and college). The concept is simple: Have someone “secretly” shop at your place of business, so you can experience exactly what your customers experience. My sense is that not many associations do this, and …
To improve adoption, decrease the friction “Before you try to increase your willpower, try to decrease the friction in your environment.” – James Clear I’m a big fan of James Clear (who writes on habits) because so much of data management is about habits. What Clear is saying above is that if you want to change …
“Is this normal?” ne of the greatest parts about my job is that I get to work with so many different associations, which means I see all kinds of things that most of my clients never see. It also means I have a very deep perspective on how often something does or does not happen with associations …
Give your staff more freedom, not less I often tell my clients, when it comes to data management, I’m a big liberal; I believe you should give as many staff as possible the ability to edit data within your data management system (with proper training, of course!). The point of a centralized data management system is not just …
My advice? Stop doing that! There is a classic TV sketch featuring Bob Newhart as a therapist. He helps his patients overcome their issues by using two magic words: “Stop it.” (You can see the clip here: https://youtu.be/4BjKS1-vjPs) The sketch is funny because his advice is incredibly simple but obviously very difficult to apply. Remarkably, this …
Is a college degree really required? I saw a job listing last week for an entry-level position at an association, seeking a data manager. From the job description, the position was focused on managing member records and doing some light querying, reporting, and data analysis. The association was seeking someone with one to three years of experience. …
Small actions become big wins I’ve written before about how data accretes, the idea that over time, we accumulate more and more data that becomes increasingly useless over time. While this is a never-ending challenge of data management, another truism is that small wins accumulate over time. In other words, one of the ways to combat …
Try not to OFFEND your members… I recently received an email from an association where I’ve been a member for nearly 30 years. In that time I’ve provided hundreds if not thousands of hours of volunteer time to them. The first line of the email read: “Wes, have you ever considered volunteering for [association name]?” You …
How will you use that data? One of the beauties of technology today is how easy it is to collect data. Add a field to your database, set up a survey, collect the data. Couldn’t be easier, right? But there are several trade-offs involved (as there always are!). One of those is that odds are good that …