Welcome to our Blue Margin Expert Insights Series. We're glad you joined us. This series is for private equity and mid market executives who want to use data and dashboards as the short path for driving growth. Today we have the pleasure of hosting Tracy Hockenberry. We worked with Tracy when she was Director of Business Systems at Salisbury, now New Story Schools, a company backed by Audax Group that provides alternative education and pediatric mental health for students with serious behavioral/academic challenges. So a mission minded business to be sure. Tracy is now Senior Program Manager at Eaton, a public power management company with 100 years of history and 85,000 global employees. Welcome, Tracy.
Tracy Hockenberry:Thank you. Happy to be here.
Jon Thompson:Yeah. So first of all, I'm sure that all of our listeners are wondering, to make a jump from a mid market PE backed company to a company that is in 175 countries. What enticed you to make that jump? And what were you thinking?
Tracy Hockenberry:That's a difficult question. You know, I'm always up for challenge. And I think one of the things that I enjoyed the most when I worked at New Story was the ability to move into different positions, and always be doing something new, a lot of times paving the pathway for something brand new at the organization. So, I'm so grateful for my experiences there. And it was a lot of fun. But I had been there for almost 20 years, and, you know, it was just time for a change. And switching industries was a little bit of a risk, slightly scary, but I was also really looking forward to expanding my skill set and just expanding the industries in which I had worked in because I had really only worked in behavioral health care for such a long time. So when I got connected with Eaton, it felt like a really good fit, because I work with the human centered design team there. So, putting the customer first or the client first and looking at how you can improve experience, whether it be in training, coaching, facilitation, design, they're really making a big impact. So I was really excited to be a part of that and join the team.
Jon Thompson:Nice. Okay, we might dig into other differences between multiple orders of magnitude from the company you went from to the company right now. But you and I originally met in 2020, when your team at New Story enlisted Blue Margin to help organize your data and build dashboards to expose key metrics, things around growth, and so on. I'm curious at what point BI became a priority. And, you know, while you were there, you held positions as Director of Operations, Director of IT and Business Systems, Director of PMO. So you have broad experience running these machines and data that enables them. So we'll dig into sort of the "how to," but I am curious at what data and visibility into it became a necessity and a priority.
Tracy Hockenberry:You know, we started going through a digital transformation around 2017 officially. But we had, I would say, paved the way a few years prior to that. But whenever we started to really sit and take a look at our systems, where we were at, where we wanted to go in terms of growth and strategy of a company, it became very apparent that we needed to do some things differently, make some changes, and bring on some new tools, some new resources, and so forth. And so, at that time, the New Story hired its first CIO, and I was able to work directly with him, co-leading a lot of our efforts in the formal digital transformation of the organization. So it was really clear how important our data and our architecture were, as we were doing that, and we had a lot of cleanup to do, and a lot of work to do, which I think is common for many organizations when you actually take a step back to look at your current state and your data that maybe you haven't evaluated over 20 years. So it really became important when we started that initiative and we brought on new stakeholders and team members that we're helping to lead that effort to help grow and scale the company. We couldn't grow in scale without looking at our data and starting to look at our data strategy, our metrics and so forth. So that was around the time.
Jon Thompson:Yeah, interesting. I'd love to dig into that. I guess I'm curious about how you approached that. So every company finds themselves with gaps and inconsistencies and problems in their data. And one approach is to say, "We're gonna get that perfected," which of course can take into infinity. Or you can start building dashboards and there's the risk of unreliability and people don't trust them and then don't adopt. Do you remember how you guys sort of split that difference and how you got going?
Tracy Hockenberry:Yeah, I do. We jumped right in. You know, we sat down and just really looked at where we were going and what was needed. And we started working right away. And I think there were positives and benefits to that, right. So, I think we gained a lot, and we learned a lot super quickly. And it's almost like fail fast or fail forward. We got a very good eye opening into the work that we needed to do to clean our data and to fix some of the internal workings of our business, as we started to dive in, maybe a little too quickly in some areas. But, you know, you learn as you go. And I think, now, if I were to redo that strategy somewhere else, I would do it a little differently in terms of looking at the data first and doing some internal work first, but it was a lot of fun and a lot of work. Very eye opening.
Jon Thompson:Yeah. So you might slide a little towards the end of the spectrum of, "Get your data a little cleaner before you start putting it out there." But you made fast progress falling forward, it sounds like. The risk always being that people look at the dashboards and say,"These aren't trustworthy," and then it's tough to get them back. But you powered through that somehow, we'll touch on that a little bit more as we go. I'd like to ask you about your perspective, having been a leader and a program leader, and and the person that drove a significant data initiative, what do you see as the role of business intelligence, ie dashboards, data, analytics, etc., in business, and what's at the core of this trend that puts it seemingly at the forefront of a lot, if not most, business leaders minds?
Tracy Hockenberry:Yeah, that's a great question. You know, I think to lead any business initiative, you have to start with your data, like you need to look at your data, your business processes, and is what you're doing appropriate for your current state. What I mean by that is, a lot of businesses start, I think, as smaller businesses are mom and pop businesses, and they have processes and things in place that work for them then, and as they grow in scale, a lot of times you don't take the time to sit and reevaluate those things you just keep piling on or keep building on. There's a workaround here, work around there, and it works for you. Until one day you step back and you realize, "Oh, my goodness, like what happened? Like this is a really complex process." So, I think, for me, data intelligence is key to drive business decision making and strategy, right? When you're looking at where you're going as an organization or company and you're setting your mission and your vision and your goals to support that. Data will then help to drive those important decisions on, "Are you going in the right direction? Are you solving the right problem? Are you putting in place the right products or services? Do you have the right resources?" So it really is at the very core of driving actionable and impactful decisions for a business and making sure that you are aligning with the overall strategy of your company.
Jon Thompson:I see that as the bigger value. There's also just overcoming the inefficiency of those legacy systems, typically Excel. I mean, we run into mid market companies that run their CRM in a spreadsheet. And, I'm sure at New Story, like with every company, there were Excel spreadsheets and manual ways of getting at the insights. Was it more about overcoming those inefficiencies, or more about gaining actual better insights that would inform in a more strategic way?
Tracy Hockenberry:I think it was a little of both. Our team was definitely looking for insights to inform. That was a big driver. So we did take a step back and start to make changes. We started to address,"How can we provide our stakeholders with data that they trust." You commented before on multiple versions of data not having a single source of the truth. And so we started there. We corrected some of the inefficiencies so that we could start to produce reliable data. And that took a while to convince stakeholders that,"This is accurate." You know,"We have this one version of the truth." Because they did want to have that ability to use data, analyze it, looking back at what they just collected to make forward decisions, right. So,"How can we pivot? Is what we're doing helping to bring students in the door? Are we making meaningful outcomes and the education we're providing or the social services that we're providing?" Things like that. So, I think it was a little of both. And we did both along the way in terms of correcting things that we would identify as they crept up and looking at our internal workflows, and how we were collecting data, architecture, things like that, along with setting up the BI dashboards, and looking at what was the most impactful data that we could put on there that, if people were going to look at it for 30 seconds, that we could tell them the story that they needed to know and that they could get exactly what they needed super quickly to make the decisions that they were looking to make.
Jon Thompson:Yeah, that's great. And you mentioned that it took some time to bring folks around to what needed to be done to get the data right, change processes, convince them of the importance of it. You know, arguably one of the most difficult elements of any BI project is aligning stakeholders from getting buy in from your executive team, aligning the project requirements with the organization's goals, getting the data so it's functional enough, etc. From your experience, how would you recommend folks get a data strategy, data project off to a smooth start?
Tracy Hockenberry:Yeah, that's a that's a loaded question, because there's a lot to answer there. So, having stakeholder alignment is critical to begin, right. But how do you get there? And how do you even begin that conversation? So, I would start with saying, "Do we even know, at the executive level of any organization, what our goals are?" That sounds like a silly question, but a lot of times the teams, like the leaders of an organization, don't actually have clearly articulated or clearly documented strategic goals that they have published or could publish out with all of their business units and their employees. You know, I'm one to say, "Let's take a step back and start where we need to start, at the beginning. So what are we trying to accomplish? So we're making sure that we're solving the right problem, like what's our mission, what is our strategy, what do we need to accomplish? And then how do we get there?" So starting your strategy there, I think is really important and having those conversations. But I think, secondary to that in terms of a specific strategy, and actually spinning it up and getting it started, is making sure that you have buy in and sign off and alignment from the right stakeholders and your executive board or executive team. So, if you do run an Enterprise Project Management Office, or you manage your projects in some other fashion, whoever those team members are that need to be communicated with, have inputs, sign off, give deliverables, give requirements, making sure that you include the right people at the table from day one, so that you don't miss anybody or miss some critical steps and requirements needed in your strategy. That buy in from the very beginning and that official sign off make a big difference, in my experience, and what I have seen. So, I think that's probably the second piece that I would comment on. And then third is, when you start with the strategy, and you define your goals, and your publishing them out, it's change management. When you're working across your larger organizations and business units, organizational change requires individual change. But why should an individual in the organization be motivated to change? Like, why should they be motivated to fill out an extra form or collect data differently, or login to the portal and view the dashboard, like what's in it for them? So I think, making sure that you have change management as a part of your overall strategy, which covers the awareness and communication, building that desire and having those messages tailored to the right audiences, along with all the other formal things that go with change management. But I think a lot of people miss those upfront steps of awareness and desire building, right. And again, if you want organizational change, it's collectively a lot of individual change. So, those are the things that I would comment on.
Jon Thompson:A couple points in their awareness and desire, is it about evoking from them their frustrations around lack of visibility into the numbers? Or is it about teaching them the philosophy of, "If you can be oriented to the performance metrics, then that will help to focus and show you if you're winning or not, and how you can win?" How do you go about that?
Tracy Hockenberry:I would say both, but I would start with the first. So I think if you want to build a relationship with a stakeholder, I would start with building that relationship and sitting down and listening. Asking questions and listening to what they have to say, so that they feel heard. So the voice of the customer becomes super important, so that they can voice openly and trust that they can have that type of transparency and honest conversation with you about what they're experiencing, their biggest pain points, their biggest frustrations about the current state of the environment, of what's happening in the company, whether it's software, resources, operations, whatever it might be. But if they can vocalize that, and you actually listen and receive it, and you build that rapport right there, then you can figure out how can you support that person through this change? And how can you spark that motivation and that desire that they're going to want to be a part of it because they're gonna see how you're bridging the gap for them. So your solution, of course, is going to solve that, right? Like, it's going to do something for them that brings an organizational benefit. So, that's where I would move into the latter part of the conversation and say, "Okay, I've heard you, I've documented these things. I'm sharing them with our larger team. And let me now start to share with you how we believe this solution is going to have a positive impact, it's going to drive insights, it's going to bridge this gap for you." It's not going to be perfect, but we need to be able to show them value and impact that they're gonna get out of it so that we can get them motivated to support it.
Jon Thompson:Is it important to get their feedback and input on the design of ultimately the the deliverable to them the dashboards?
Tracy Hockenberry:You want to have the key stakeholders involved in giving input on something like that, but you don't want to have too many cooks in the kitchen, right. Because if you have too many people involved in giving opinions, you can't reach alignment, and you're just going to have meeting after meeting where everyone's sharing perspectives, and you're never really getting to the goal, right. And then when you're working with consultants and vendors that can become costly, and not time efficient, and also So the skill set is very simply someone who understands project throw your project completely off schedule, let alone budget. So, I think from the very beginning of any strategy or initiative, you know, having ownership and RACI define of like, who's doing what, I'm a big fan of RACI, but knowing upfront who are going to be those key stakeholders, those voices that are gonna make the final decisions, because they can collaborate with their team members and receive all of the information, but then we're going to trust that our leaders, our management, whomever is a part of that conversation, we're trusting them to collectively synthesize that information, also look at organizational strategy, and give the best input for the design of the dashboard. So, to me, I would suggest a smaller group, and I've seen more success with a smaller group when it comes to the actual build and design. And it also requires people who understand a little bit about data and BI and dashboards, I think, because you don't want to have it get too complex, too messy, and so forth. You want to keep it clean and tell the story that you're trying to tell. and program management, someone who understands and knows how to execute change management, someone who gets the strategy of the business, someone who understands data. I mean, those people are everywhere. What's the best role to execute a data strategy? That's a tall order. Yeah, like to be the point person or lead it, again, every individual has different skill sets, and people call roles different titles in different organizations. So you know, in my experience, I think whether it's like a business applications director, like a business systems or business applications director, or solutions architect, IT director, PMO director, usually someone in that type of a seat has a little bit of understanding of all of those things. And they're also working closely with someone who maybe has some of the skills that they're lacking. So if they're really strong, and eight out of 10 areas, there's someone else on their team or someone else on our project team who can fill in those other areas. But definitely someone who understands data and some technology.
Jon Thompson:Yeah, yeah. So it's more than one person but not a pure technologist, not a pure strategist, someone who bridges that.
Tracy Hockenberry:Yeah.
Jon Thompson:Okay. I'm curious, beyond some of the things we've touched on, if there were other pitfalls for our listeners who are looking at embarking on what can seem like the mountain to climb in getting data to actually be integrated into their business and develop a data driven culture. What are the some of the things to look out for?
Tracy Hockenberry:Yeah, you know, I think that today data is more of a conversation. It's more of a focus across organizations, because more people were building dashboards or tracking metrics or building, you know, looking at their KPIs. But in terms of the pitfalls that that I've seen, and things I could say to look out for would be, not taking enough time up front to plan your strategy, because there's a lot that goes into a data strategy. And I could go any direction with this, but just thinking, if you're implementing a software as a part of your data strategy in efforts to track data, get your metrics and feed into a dashboard, having those conversations at the table about"Okay, so we're implementing this, what's our workflow? Are we gonna document that? What's our Visio diagrams to map this out? Who owns what? What about our system owner? Do we have somebody who can own this past implementation? Who are the roles involved in managing the software? Is that something in house? Is that something we're going to contract out of house for? Are we going to hire a new person? When do we hire that person?" Ideally, they should be a part of the initiative. You know, they should be a part of the rollout of that software, so that they can be a part of decisions being made and set up in architecture. So, I think if you don't, and I've seen it happen, where you don't take enough time upfront to plan that out, and then you get so far in and you're like, "Oh, man, we now are scrambling to hire people, or we don't know what we're doing so we'd have to contract out for this, but that really wasn't ideal." Being able to have that conversation and show the value in it. And I think one successful project going well and delivering what it was intended to to deliver and then having that adoption on the other side and the proper support structure is enough to kind of pave the way for the future then to say, "Okay, let's use this as our model of how well this went. We did all these things correctly."
Jon Thompson:I agree with that. And I think it's a point well made, because it's counterintuitive to take more time upfront. It seems like you're stretching it out, in our experience, and we've done very involved complex projects. If you don't take that time to really plan it out up front, you're going to extend that tail end and create all kinds of vectors that you've got to correct as you go. You take that time upfront, and it's a much shorter path to the goal. And, that first project that delivers real value is, you know, worth 10x all the subsequent, so you got to get that right. I appreciate you bringing that out as one of the key challenges. And you mentioned in that planning, do we work with an outside vendor? Do we not? Obviously companies have the option to do this internally. What are your thoughts on whether, or when you would want to use an outside vendor? We had a good experience together, what went well? What didn't? What advice would you have for counterparts?
Tracy Hockenberry:Yeah, you know, I think there's a lot of opportunity today to connect with and work with external vendors, more so than ever before. I think, one, not everyone, but the majority of people now have opportunities to work remotely, if they want to, in most roles. And so I think, our world has changed a little bit over the last few years, and it's opened up many opportunities for people. So that's a positive thing. But, when you look internally at your company, at your initiatives, and what you want to do, and then your own skill sets, a lot of times people find they don't have the right people in the right seats, or they don't have the right skill sets at all. And depending on where you're at, what's important to you financially, who you're owned by, it might be more advantageous to bring in contractors or external vendors to support you versus bringing on a full time employee and having that long term overhead. I think, now, there's so many niche markets out there to say, I need a BI specialist, or I need this specialist, and they have the skill set, that's what they do every day, all day. They have 10 years or 20 years of experience doing it, let's go work with that person, they're gonna give us the best results. So, I do think there's a lot of opportunity. And I think, when, is when either you don't have the staff, you don't have the time to hire and train the staff, or you don't want the long term overhead, or you're looking for that more niche skill set for special projects. And, I would just say, "Go hire the vendor, bring them in, because that's what they do best." And, you know, in terms of what worked well, or what didn't work well, because it did work very well on our project engagement, I think some of the things that stand out to me are from the very beginning, we had that open and honest communication. We knew who the point person was on each side, we had regular standing check in meetings so that there was always that touch point in everyone's schedule to just bring forth like updates, questions, concerns, risks, etc. I mentioned earlier, I'm a huge fan of RACI's. So, I know, together, we developed our RACI for during our initiative. And then afterwards we had some support needs, and we worked through that as well with our internal staff, versus your team members. So, I just think all of that was a really well thought out communication effort. And we had really detailed tracking in terms of our project artifacts. That was one thing I think that was also super helpful was the rigor and the amount of detail that you guys put into your artifacts, your project schedule, and documenting risks and decisions and issues and things like that. We always knew where we were, we knew what the dependencies where the predecessors were, to our tasks, and how, you know, one thing was an impacted another, and it was a very transparent, upfront thing. It was never about finger pointing, or blaming anyone. It was just like, "Hey, here's where we're at, here's our obstacle, how do we course correct and work together?" So, it's a partnership. I think as long as you go into it with the expectation of building a partnership with the person that you're working with, it's a lot easier to be successful.
Jon Thompson:I've long said that it comes down to adoption. You can figure out what the most important metrics are, get your data dialed in tight, put out dashboards that really nail the narrative. But if people don't adopt, I mean, the whole goal is to render data for a human to consume, to touch nerves and improve decision making and prioritization and focus and motivation. Any thoughts on how to successfully affect adoption of dashboards and data in an organization beyond what we've covered, which has been quite a bit?
Tracy Hockenberry:I know we talked about this already, but I have to say again, change management is a huge part of that. That could be a whole other discussion. But you know, incorporating change management into your structures into your strategy is really, really important. But I think, when you have people who aren't used to logging in and looking at dashboards, that aren't used to looking at data to try and make decisions. They're used to trusting their gut or this is how they've done their job for 20 years. They know how to do their job. You have to explain to them and help them understand why it's meaningful, this new thing that you're asking them to do. Because oftentimes we're working with people who are wearing 10 hats, right? Like, they're not just in one job doing one set of responsibilities. They are in a shared role, multiple hats spread very thin, oftentimes. And they care mostly about their job, meaning, if they're working with children, or adults with disabilities, or whatever the case may be, making a product, they care about their work and what they're responsible to do, and they want to make an impact. So you have to help them understand why they need to take 10 minutes or 5 minutes and log into this new tool and look at this data and why that's going to help them at the end of the day, improve somebody's life, or improve a product or service that they're providing. I think that comes from the beginning, when you have the alignment, that your data strategy is aligned with organization strategy and the right goals. And then you keep your data simple. We didn't get into dashboards and the details of it. But I think that when you keep it very clear, like "Here are the top two to three things I need you to look at." It's a lot easier than a really complex, busy dashboard when someone logs in. And they're like, "Wait, I don't know, where should I look, which piece of this is important?" So very simple and clear data with the top things that you need someone to look at and react from, or make decisions from. So, communication and buy in are important. And the last comment, I guess I would say on that is, in my experience, when you have a team who has a strong leader, and they have a really good relationship with a strong leader, when that leader rolls something out, the team already has the buy in because they know it's important to the leader, they trust the leader, they know the leader has their best interests in heart along with the company's best interests in heart. So I think that sort of paves the way and makes it a really easy ask of your team if you're working in a situation where you have people who have strong leadership skills. T hat's always been a really positive experience when that happens.
Jon Thompson:So if you have some leadership dysfunction in your organization, that data mobilizer, which was you, you really need to connect with what's the internal drive, motivation and values of the individual, and then connect that to the solution. I had a boss, once who had a superpower of that. He just instinctively always connected to the person's core drivers, whatever we were trying to do, and by the time you finished discussing, you're like, "Let's do this." I think that's what you're you're speaking to.
Tracy Hockenberry:It is, and I've had that personal experience working in a team with one of the most amazing leaders. And, you know, as I reflect back and look on that, that really shaped me and I grew a lot and learned a lot from that time period. But, you know, we went through very difficult times, we had to pivot constantly, we were always looking for creative solutions to keep our business moving forward, but to keep supporting the mission, which was ultimately, "Are we doing a good job for the children that we're working with? Are we improving their lives in some way through these behavioral health services?" Whether that was, you know, in their homes, what we were doing in the schools and the summer programs that we ran, and so forth. Our team definitely went through some difficult times and trying to figure out "How do we pivot and stay ahead?" We always wanted to stay two steps ahead of changing regulations. And we were very fortunate to have an amazing leader. So, we all work together, we were all super strong. And as you said, whenever something was said or explained or suggested it was like, "Alright, we're in this together, let's do it." And I know not everyone has that. And my wish for everyone is that they experienced that at some point in their career, because it makes your job a lot easier and more enjoyable.
Jon Thompson:Yeah. And just to point out, obviously, New Story is very mission oriented because of the lives of young people that are struggling. But every business is looking to deliver as much value to their client. And that's always a good thing. And that can be a central driving focus. So great points, I appreciate it. You were one of the more exceptional folks we worked with in terms of being able to organize all the different facets, all the different people, the strategy, the requirements, the data, technical stuff, and the communication and so on. Just a broad set of talents. If folks want to get in touch with you and talk further about your experience, talk shop, what's the best way to do that?
Tracy Hockenberry:Yeah, I mean, connecting with me on LinkedIn,@TracyHockenberry is is a great way and from there, feel free to message and email and so forth. I love connecting with people. I love building my network and having exciting conversations about creative solutions. And it's just always a pleasure to connect with new people.
Jon Thompson:Great. Well, thank you so much, Tracy. This is just a very pleasant and informative conversation. I appreciate you always, and look forward to our next one.
Tracy Hockenberry:Thank you so much for having me this is a lot of fun so I appreciate it, thanks.