From scattered to strategic: figuring out the next steps in your data journey
Data Strategy
Business Development
Understanding
Insights
There’s a moment in the growth of every company where data can stop being a helpful tool and may start becoming a burden.
Mid-sized organizations are in a particularly complex position. They’re past the startup chaos, already handling real scale, with teams and processes that have matured. They’re facing bigger strategic questions, operating across more channels, and engaging with a wider customer base.
And yet, when it comes to data, they’re stuck.
Not because they don’t care about data. Quite the opposite: they know it matters. They see competitors getting smarter. They feel the pressure to adopt AI. They want to move faster and more confidently.
But they can’t seem to turn their information into action. Why?
They’re caught between cost and capability.
Building a true internal data function isn’t just about hiring an analyst. It means assembling a team of engineers, strategists, scientists, and behavioral thinkers, people who can design systems, not just fill them.
That’s feasible for the Fortune 500. But for a mid-sized business, it usually comes down to trade-offs:
Build slowly and risk falling behind.
Patch the gaps with tools that don’t talk to each other.
Hire agencies that deliver slides, but not solutions.
This tension keeps companies in a loop; investing just enough to stay busy, but not enough to break through.
Their data is scattered and underutilized
It’s not that these companies don’t have data. Most have more than they realize: from operations and sales to customer service, marketing platforms, and HR systems.
The issue is fragmentation. The data sits in different silos. It lacks structure, consistency, and a shared language across departments. No one really owns the whole picture.
This fragmentation isn’t just technical. It’s organizational. It means:
No shared understanding of what matters.
No alignment on how success is measured.
Hire agencies that deliver slides, but not solutions.
So when pressure builds, teams revert to instinct, opinion, and partial data. The real opportunities stay buried.
They lack a flexible, strategic model
Many companies think their only way forward is to go big: invest in tech, hire full-time experts, and launch a transformation project.
But the real need is often smaller, more targeted: to clarify what data matters, organize it into strategic tiers, and use it to solve specific problems.
A fractional model can help fill this gap. It brings the expertise of a full data office without the cost or commitment. More importantly, it adapts to where the business is now, not where a playbook says it should be.
Making a difference in the next steps for many companies won’t come from having more tools, but from having better ways of using their data to be clearly, consistently, decide confidently, and act fast; and in a way that works for their size and stage.
Mid-sized businesses don’t need more tools. They need better structure, sharper questions, and data partners who can help them build real capability over time.
In our next article, we’ll introduce the thinking behind our Fractional Data Office and the strategic data framework that makes it work, so mid-sized teams can stop guessing and start leading with confidence.
Stay tuned.
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