Workflow Wednesday: When Speed Matters and the Data Engine Sputters

Art by @basilonmypizza: https://lnkd.in/eF8FkWzN - https://basilhefti.ch/

Remember when you wanted to start your journey and your car would not start? This has become rather rare for me. Still, I vividly recall the associated stress. Sometimes, capers make use of it, when the hero has seconds to escape and the motor sputters.

Maybe you have similar moments in business?

Imagine a crisis hits and you need to find the root cause fast. Sales are dropping in one region. Shipments are late. A team is understaffed. This is exactly when speed matters. But instead of helping, the data engine sputters: you do not know which table to trust, you cannot bring the data together, crucial fields are missing, and inconsistent values send you in the wrong direction.

That is the business version of the getaway car that will not start.

It does not have to be that way. Just as with a car, there are early signs that something may go wrong. These are the things I look out for when I first see a data system:

⚠️ Leftovers lying around, such as tables called product_backup_20260421 or product_new.

⚠️ Fields with multiple uses, where sometimes a code is entered and sometimes the description. Dates that cannot be true, for example because the century was omitted.

⚠️ Keys that do not quite match, with some values zero-padded and others not.

⚠️ Important fields missing or empty (‘Not Set’ is a famous value). Or the most recent record not being recent at all.

⚠️ Data that do not reconcile, such as totals across invoice and invoice line. Or value domains that are inconsistent, with CHF in one place and SFr in another.

Here is where many companies trip up: they think that once the car is built, the job is done.

The secret is keeping it running perfectly, which means constantly hunting down and fixing problems.

If you’ve checked everything off the above list, you’re almost home. It’s not the most exciting part of the process, but really important. Plus, it always helps to have a pro on hand to catch mistakes before they actually happen.

When did you do the last “oil change”?

Art: https://lnkd.in/eF8FkWzN https://basilhefti.ch/