“I just want a system I don’t have to fight with.” I asked my client: “What are you looking for in a new AMS?” She responded: “I just want a system I don’t have to fight with.” And it struck me that this is how A LOT of my clients feel about their data management systems; that …
“I just want a system I don’t have to fight with.” Read More »
Inertia Contributes to Bad Data Without knowing anything about your organization or its data, I’d be willing to bet you have data in your system that you are no longer actively managing/using (e.g., data that was collected long ago for some initiative at the time) or, worse yet, actively collecting data that you aren’t actually …
What Are You Doing with New Contacts/ I was very interested to read in a recent report from McKinley Advisors that, with the shift to virtual events, many associations are reporting “up to 70% new participants in their ecosystem.” What that means is these associations are introducing new names to their databases. (Click here to …
Be Aware of Selection Bias I wrote recently about the mistaken perception of older members not being tech savvy. (You can read that here.) One of my astute readers, Will Slade at Protech, pointed out the following (I’m paraphrasing): “It’s possible that the reason many associations perceive older members to be not tech savvy is …
Some Things Just Take Time I learned recently that an elephant’s gestation period is 18 months. It takes 18 months for an elephant to have a baby elephant. It’s also a fact that three elephants can’t make a baby elephant in six months. There is no shortcut; it takes one elephant 18 months. The same is …
Sometimes It’s the Least Bad Choice Just like in life, sometimes when we’re making technology or management decisions, we’re faced with few good choices. And very often I’ll tell my clients, what we’re looking to do is make the “least bad” choice. For example, during a new system implementation, the vendor will ask for “blackout” …
Our Members Aren’t Tech Savvy Having worked now in the association space for more than 30 years, I’ve heard my share of association executives utter the phrase “Our members aren’t very tech savvy.” This phrase is often followed with (or preceded by) “Our members are older.” (And this is typically related to the members not …
Motion vs. Action One key to successful data management is understanding the difference between motion and action. Simply put, motion = planning but action = doing. Too often we spend a lot of time planning out all the different ways we’ll improve our data management. We make plans to clean the data, to establish clear business rules, …
There is ALWAYS a Trade-off I’ve written many times about trade-offs (you can read a bunch here). In short, every decision you make, whether you realize it or not, involves a trade-off. And recent news reminded me once again, that not only are there always trade-offs, but often they are unseen. This article explains how …
Little by little, a little becomes a lot “Little by little, a little becomes a lot.” I don’t know where I first read it (a google search says it’s a Tanzanian proverb; I’m dubious), but I love the phrase, especially as it relates to data management. One of the many challenges of data management is …