Using the Data Maturity Assessment with a cohort of organisations
Using the Data Maturity Assessment with a cohort of organisations
Over the last year we’ve been exploring how we can make our organisational Data Maturity Assessment available to partners and agencies. In spring 2020 Super Being Labs carried out user research to explore how our tool could add value and deliver benefits.
Since then, many support providers, both in the UK and internationally, have been in touch wanting to use it with their clients. In line with our core values of collaboration and openness, this is a really exciting opportunity to scale our impact by working with others. Some, like Superhighways, are taking cohorts of organisations on a journey to build their data capabilities and want to explore how using our Data Maturity Assessment can support and measure that journey.
In 2020 we began a trial with Superhighways to test out using our organisational Data Maturity Assessment with one of their cohorts.
Supporting Datawise London on their data maturity journey
Superhighways started their two year partnership - Datawise London – a data literacy and digital skills programme, in July 2020. This provides training, advice and practical support to small London-based charities so they can better use data to shape services and influence change.
They were interested in two things:
Can the Data Maturity Assessment be a useful tool for setting the scene and starting conversations among participant organisations at the outset of the 8-month programme?
Can the tool be used to evidence the impact of their support intervention on completion?
What we did
Data Orchard:
Worked with Superhighways to create a customised Data Maturity Assessment for the Datawise London cohort.
Created a set of unique organisation assessments, each customised with the charity’s own logo and Datawise London branding.
Added three customised questions to the assessment.
Ran a short introductory online workshop on data maturity for the cohort leads.
Provided each of the cohort leads with an introductory email with their unique assessment link to share with their colleagues.
During September and October 2020 the cohort leads rallied their teams to complete the assessment. In total 29 staff from the seven organisations did so. Each respondent received their own report on how they personally assessed their organisation and each organisation received an overall organisation report.
The post assessment debrief
In mid-October, Superhighways brought the cohort together to reflect on their experiences of taking the Data Maturity Assessment. In particular, they asked them to share what was surprising, validating and aspirational. These were some of the responses:
Surprising
“Helped me to see how important data is from all these different angles.”
“Very useful in exploring areas we’d not thought much about.”
“Forced us to be honest about where we are.”
“Provided a testimony of the level of engagement around data in our organisation.”
Validating
“It reflected our conversations and current thinking well, particularly our culture and leadership around data.”
“It validated a lot of where we thought we were.”
“We’ve spent the last 4-5 years working at getting better with data and we were quite ambitious. It was reassuring to see our hard work showed we were ahead of the benchmark and in the developing stage.”
“It reflected exactly the areas we need to focus on.”
Aspirational
“It feels like the beginning of a journey.”
“It raised our enthusiasm.”
“Made you want to ‘pick up your pace’ as you’re clear about the next steps.”
What we learned
For us at Data Orchard, the experience was really positive. Both we and Superhighways were keen to use this as an experimental learning process. We put in place clear legal/contractual arrangements with Superhighways as a partner and with each charity in the cohort. These ensured we were open and transparent about data sharing, use of personal data and anonymization and payment arrangements. We also learned that our advanced data maturity product is scalable and will work for partners and resellers.
Kate White, Superhighways Manager and Programme Lead for Datawise London, told us:
"The Data Maturity Assessment proved to be a successful conversation opener for those who completed it and it worked well that Data Orchard could introduce the assessment and the concept of data maturity directly to the organisations at the beginning of the programme.
“Having the full cohort take the Data Maturity Assessment highlighted to us where organisations were at, both at this point in time and in relation to each other. Results validated our ideas for the programme content, though there were a couple of surprises.
“It’s been particularly valuable for us to use an existing assessment, linked to an established framework, as this places our cohort programme within a wider context of data maturity in the social sector."
Next steps
The Datawise London programme is now in full swing and each cohort member is busy working with their advisors and mentors on advancing their charity’s data maturity. We plan to re-assess the cohort’s data maturity at the end of the programme (later in 2021) to see what progress has been made. Watch this space!
At Data Orchard we’re continuing to improve our Data Maturity Assessment and benchmarking and we’re keen to widen the net of support for not-for-profits by making it more available to partners and agencies supporting the not-for-profit sector.
If you’re an agency, consultant or product/service provider, interested in using our Data Maturity Assessment tool with your clients, do get in touch. Meanwhile, for infrastructure bodies, networks, grant-makers and place-based initiatives, we currently offer discounts for batch assessments and bespoke reports.
Contact us at info@dataorchard.org.uk to arrange a chat.