Sustainability goals and "Data Driven Derek" - An example of how data products support both organisations and their customers

Music and podcasts are a staple component of my runs.  Music helps push me on when I'm flagging, but podcasts are great company and give the brain some exercise whilst the legs are running… 

Working in the technology and data area means that I love listening to how other data leaders have created value for their organisation and, perhaps more importantly, have created value for their customers through the data products (tools) their teams create.

“Data Driven Derek” hit the UK tabloid papers last year and although I missed it back then but in the Data Chief podcast link below, Katie Russell from Ovo (a UK energy provider) uses Derek to highlight how important data products are.  

Why mention it here?  Well Ovo have a mission to be a sustainable energy provider and they measure their success through the savings (and energy usage reduction) their customers make.  Ovo actively promote these savings to their customers and their customer service teams through data products which help showcase opportunities and actions which the customer can take.  Data Driven Derek is a retired gentleman in the UK who, using Ovo's data products, became a showcase example of how data helped both the company drive their sustainability goals and Derek, the customer, to save / make money (around £20k …..!!)

In the podcast Katie gives a raft of ideas as to how Ovo started with creating a data driven culture and from the demand and awareness of value that it generated they were able to modernize their technology.  This allowed them to build the algorithms and data products to nudge and guide their internal teams and their customers to make good sensible choices - delivering against both of their sustainability and cost goals.

It's worth a listen if you are involved in data or technology but also worth a listen if you are a business lead and want to challenge your tech team to give you some innovative ways to use data to drive change and achieve your goals.