Instinct without insight is a liability.
22 Oct 2025

Paul Barnhurst argues that being data driven doesn't mean abandoning gut instinct. Instead, use data to inform it. If new data wouldn't change your decision, you're wasting money collecting it.

Paul Barnhurst argues that being data driven doesn't mean abandoning gut instinct. Instead, use data to inform it. If new data wouldn't change your decision, you're wasting money collecting it.
I usually work from their perspective is that they want to be data driven. Now, what does it mean to be data driven? So one of the part that is a common misnomer is that data driven companies make all their decision based on data, nothing else. So the clarity that a lot of leaders have to understand is the question is, how informed is your gut? Because we work with incomplete information, things changing and not finalizing. So from that perspective, that's kind of the two sides of it, right? One is more technical in terms of how do we leverage your data assets? The most prudent way. And on the other side is, I can get you all this information, what decision would you do differently? And if the answer is, I'm not going to do it, I'm going to keep doing the same thing. I'm like, don't waste your money here.

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