Data is Not Facts: The Impossibility of Being Unbiased

We talk a lot about making decisions based on data, but we need to be careful about how hard and fast those decisions are. Our decisions are only as good as our data and our analysis.

Neither can be perfect. Data is always a sample of the full scope of reality, and analytics is always an interpretation of that sample.

We need to be cognizant of the differences between Opinions, Facts, and Conclusions. And, just as important, we need to recognize the relationship between our judgement and our ego: all disagreements are personal to some degree.

After many years of experience in diverse areas of IT and management consulting, Andrew Patricio finally decided to go out on his own. His most recent full time gig was as the Deputy Chief for Data Systems at DC Public Schools for nearly six years.

While there, Andrew really dove into the concepts behind data effectiveness. DCPS is a very data driven organization, and as the head of the data systems teams, he had to contend with poor data quality while at the same time making sure their analytics were fed.

A public school district is always pressed for funds, and it was the rock of high demand for data and the hard place of capacity and budget challenges that gave rise to the pragmatic, realistic, and high ROI approach that is data effectiveness.