By Trent Mankelow

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We are often asked by clients for our opinion on the things they should watch out for, what the future holds, and who’s doing the really interesting stuff.
 
These kind of questions have inspired us to reflect and collect our thoughts into four inter-related articles covering:
 

1. Devices
2. Social interactions
3. Services
4. Data

 
In this final part of the series, we are looking at data.
 
The funny thing is that despite complaining about information overload since the Library of Alexandria 2,300 years ago, our appetite for information continues to grow. Thanks to the Internet we have all these great new possibilities to collect data, share it, bring it from one place to another, to remix it, label it and find it.
 
For example:
 

• Sophisticated home weather stations can be purchased for under $200. Who needs Metservice when you can collect the data yourself?
• 23andMe offers an at-home DNA test to help figure out customers’ ancestry and predisposition to 119 diseases. Even your saliva can be a form of data.
• The New York Times has described e-mail as the "the bane of some people’s professional lives" and a $650 billion drag on the economy. The trouble is that many of us are addicted to email, and it’s one area of information overload that we actively contribute to.

 
Of course, the problem is not so much the data itself as finding, filtering and understanding the data. The director of the MIT’s Center for Digital Business makes the point that "we’re rapidly entering a world where everything can be monitored and measured…the big problem is going to be the ability of humans to use, analyze and make sense of the data" (source).
 
World-class companies help customers make sense of their own data. They provide tools which give customers insight into their own behaviour.
 
For example, Mint’s goal is to give people insight into their finances. "We fundamentally believe that the reason you work so hard in life is to enjoy the financial benefits of doing that work…achieving those goals is where Mint wants to help people. The way we do this is by highlighting and focusing on the insights on current behaviour, and then promoting actions that people can take to make change a reality" (source).
 
Unfortunately very few companies have Mint’s attitude. As part of their everyday business most organisations collect data, but it do very little with it. This seems crazy to me. Even if organisations don’t help customers make sense of their own data, surely it’s worthwhile measuring, collecting, analysing and reporting customer data for their own use?
 
Of course, once companies catch on, the demand for statisticians and analysts to help make sense of the data will be huge. In a recent Wired article, Google’s chief economist shared his belief that one of the sexiest jobs in the next 10 years will be as a statistician. "What’s ubiquitous and cheap?" Varian asks. "Data." And what is scarce? The analytic ability to utilize that data.
 
 
Data isn’t going to go away. We are just going to keep collecting and publishing more and more and more information. But as Clay Shirky argues, the problem isn’t really one of information overload, it’s one of filter failure. We need to design filters that let us find our way through the abundance of information. Those filters can be in the form of Mint’s pie charts that show at a glance your financial position, while at the same time allowing you to drill down into details. Or they could be in the form of Xobni, who’s Outlook add-in which allows you to rapidly move through the piles of unsorted email.
 
So I leave you with two final questions: what is your organisation doing to help your customers understand their data? And, What is your organisation doing to help you understand your customers’ data?