The Real Problem Wasn’t Visibility. It Was Trust

Jun 13, 2025

We Thought the Problem Was Visibility. It Wasn’t.

There’s a moment that still sticks with me. We had a team that was struggling with forecasting, resource planning, and team utilization and everyone kept saying the same thing: “We just need better visibility.”

So we went all in.

We connected every system you can think of; time entry, pipeline, PTO, forecasting, sales, actual availability. Every single lever that impacts utilization got wired into one centralized, dynamic dashboard. We visualized it, color-coded it, made it real-time. If someone blinked too long, the system practically showed it.

It was beautiful. And completely ineffective.

The Data Wasn’t the Problem

We thought the issue was people not being able to see the full picture. So we built the picture. We assumed that once the data was centralized and visualized, everything else would fall into place. People would finally see the story and make better decisions.

Except they didn’t.

We still saw breakdowns in planning. Still saw mismatches in resourcing. Still had friction across teams.

So we sat down and started digging, not with dashboards, but in conversation. And what we uncovered was simple, humbling, and completely unexpected:

The real issue wasn’t visibility. It was trust.

They Didn’t Trust the Data And They Had a Point

We had spent months designing the system but not everyone had been part of that process. So when they saw the final result, they questioned everything:

“Where did this come from?”
“That number can’t be right.”
“You must be missing something.”

And truthfully? Sometimes we were. There were a few edge cases that weren’t perfect. But the bigger issue was that the data wasn’t theirs. They didn’t see how it got made, didn’t know the assumptions behind it, didn’t feel confident poking around in it.

To them, it was a black box. And even though 99% of it was solid, that 1% was enough to discredit the entire thing.

What We Missed: Communication Comes First

We skipped a step.

Instead of starting with communication, explaining how the data was structured, who owned what, and how it all tied together, we jumped straight to the output. And in doing so, we unintentionally lost the buy-in we needed most.

We realized the issue wasn’t just a data quality problem. It was a process transparency problem. A trust-building problem. A people problem.

So we slowed down. We invited teams into the conversation. We walked through each component of the dashboard, what system it came from, who maintained it, how frequently it updated, what assumptions were baked in, and most importantly: why it mattered.

We turned the dashboard from a thing we built for them into a tool we built with them.

What We’d Do Differently

Looking back, the centralization and visualization were still absolutely necessary. But they were just the final step, not the first.

If I had to do it again, here’s how I’d approach it:

Start with listening, not building. Understand the stories behind why people aren’t trusting or using the data.
Document the flow. Map out where the data comes from, who owns it, how often it’s updated, and why it matters.
Invite others into the build. Let people co-create the system so they trust the process and not just the output.
Educate continuously. A dashboard is only as useful as the shared understanding behind it.
Remember: trust is slower than code. You can wire up a new integration in a day. Building trust across teams? That takes a little more time and a lot more conversations.

Final Thought

We were so focused on building the “perfect” utilization system that we forgot the system had to be lived in by real people.

And those people needed more than visibility.

They needed context. Ownership. And trust.