Data-driven
organization
A field guide for real organizations

How to Become aData-DrivenOrganization

A Practical Step-by-Step Guide

Build the conditions for better decisions. Start where you are, see what matters, and make progress that lasts.

Look inside the book
Dr. Mariana HebbornProf. Dr. Heiko BeierDr. Jan-Hendrik Weinert
Coming soonThe forthcoming book
Front cover of How to Become a Data-Driven Organization: A Practical Step-by-Step Guide, by Dr. Mariana Hebborn, Prof. Dr. Heiko Beier and Dr. Jan-Hendrik Weinert.
A Practical Step-by-Step Guide
01People02Data Quality03Data Architecture04Data Governance05Automation06AI
The starting point

Your organization
doesn’t have to
be ready.

Two teams disagree about the same number. A promising pilot has no one to run it. One specialist holds a critical process together.

This book starts with the work you can already see. It helps you understand what gets in the way, connect the right capabilities, and choose a useful next change.

See the system behind the problem
01 / Understand the systemChapters 1–4
  1. 01

    Notice the friction.

    Which recurring decision is harder than it needs to be?

  2. 02

    Trace the system.

    Which handoffs, incentives, or boundaries keep producing it?

  3. 03

    Connect the dimensions.

    What would a change need, enable, or shift elsewhere?

  4. 04

    Choose the next constraint.

    Which bounded change does the evidence support now?

When the explanation does not hold, return to the observed work.
From a visible problem to a challengeable explanation and one responsible next change. Revisit the questions whenever the work gives you a reason.
02 / The six dimensions · Chapters 5–10

Six dimensions.
One connected system.

See how capability grows across the system, as progress in one dimension changes what the others can support.

Six dimensions, in relationship15 connections
The six dimensions develop together, at different ratesSix radial axes represent People, Data Quality, Data Architecture, Data Governance, Automation, and AI. Every dimension connects to all five others, giving fifteen undirected connections. A filled shape changes through an illustrative planning workflow. Its unnumbered distances are not measurements, maturity levels, or transferable permissions. The written story below explains each moment.
People
DataQuality
DataArchitecture
DataGovernance
Automation
AI
Choose a moment
An illustrative development story
Moment 01 / 07

Start where you are.

One weekly planning decision depends on private knowledge, uneven data, and workarounds. Start with the capabilities the work already has.

Explore the relationships

Each dimension changes the others.

Select a dimension to follow its five connections. Each relationship is a question to test in real work: what does this change need, enable, or make harder elsewhere?

Explore the full framework
03 / Chapters 11–15

Make progress last.

A local result becomes useful beyond its first moment when the organization can support, question, adapt, and, when necessary, end it.

Chapter 11

Start small. Leave something dependable.

Keep exposure bounded and responsibility complete.

Chapter 12

Test fit for reuse.

When another consumer needs it, establish what can travel and what must change.

Meaning + lifecycle
Chapter 13

Make responsibility workable.

Place authority, capacity, funding, and incentives around the work they must support.

Authority + support
Chapter 14

Let evidence challenge the result.

Observe outcomes, behavior, risk, and who carries the burden. Name the response.

Evidence + response
Chapter 15

Choose the next turn.

Act within the evidence. Renew after material change.

  • Advance
  • Repair
  • Narrow
  • Hold
  • Retire
Keep the protected function and continuing responsibilities in view.Return to the next constraint
Three equally useful ways into the book

Follow the argument / Start with your problem / Open a practical tool

Put the book to work.

Read from the beginning, start with a real problem, or open a practical tool. The companion toolkit brings the book’s methods into your next conversation and decision.

Explore the companion toolkit