Why We Treat Operational Data Like a Live Feed

Where I disagree with most people in operations, especially in delivery and resourcing, comes down to one thing: data.

Most people treat data like it’s an afterthought. Something you review weekly. Or monthly. Or worse, quarterly. It’s become totally normal to accept lagging indicators as if that’s the best we can do. But I think that’s a huge mistake.

To me, data should be live. As live as possible.

We’re not here to analyze what happened weeks ago, we’re here to manage what’s happening now. Data is only useful when it informs today’s decisions. Not yesterday’s. Not last sprint’s. Not last quarter’s. Today.

Because if you’re looking at a report from last week or even three days ago and trying to make a call on capacity, or hiring, or workload balancing, you’re already behind. The information you’re acting on might no longer be true. That resourcing gap might have closed. That project timeline might have shifted. That team member might now be fully booked, or out sick, or off-boarding.

And if the data isn’t accurate, your decision isn’t either.

This is where I think too many operators and agency leaders go wrong. They love the idea of data. They want dashboards. They want metrics. But they use them like autopsy reports. Something to look at after the fact, to explain what went wrong.

That’s not what we need.

What we need is data as a daily driver, clean, real-time, and constantly refreshed. We need to see shifts in available hours, team allocations, project pacing, burn rates. We need to be alerted the second someone is overbooked or a project is slipping. Because if we can see it, we can do something about it.

If we can’t, we’re flying blind.

Here’s the thing: business is just a series of decisions. And data is how you make them. So why would you build your business off of decisions based on stale information?

We’re in an industry where one new client can swing your margin for the month. Where one team member out on leave can throw off an entire pod’s utilization. Where internal demands shift week to week, and the work you thought you had yesterday is no longer there.

So imagine the risk in making decisions with data that’s two weeks old. Or even a week. Imagine flying a plane with a radar from last Tuesday.

You wouldn’t do that.

So we don’t.

We’ve built our systems to be as live as possible. We clean our data constantly. We pressure test assumptions. And we teach our clients how to use their numbers not just for reporting but for managing. That’s where the power is.

And it’s not about complexity. You just need good habits. Clear inputs. Clean processes. And the discipline to build your operating rhythm around what’s true today, not what was true last month.

Because at the end of the day, we’re not in the business of guessing.

We’re in the business of making better decisions.

And that starts with better data, live, clear, and constant.

Richard