Establishing a definitive data strategy requires credit unions to put in time, effort and intentionality across three dimensions:

Understanding the current state: What does the credit union have today in terms of the people, processes and technology? What are the resulting capabilities? How is data flowing in and out of the cooperative at this very moment?
Visualizing the future state: Where does the credit union want to go? What are the business problems data analytics will help solve? Which of the possible use cases will yield the greatest impact?
Designing the roadmap: Which steps does the credit union need to take and in what order? How do the priority initiatives line up with budget, time and talent resources? What are the quick wins that will drive motivation and keep teams moving forward?

A Functional Roadmap Is Extensive, yet Manageable

Although it comes third in the process of building a data strategy, developing a unique roadmap for a credit union's way forward is arguably one of the most important steps. The roadmap must be extensive, detailing precisely how the credit union will build an enterprise-wide data analytics program with cross-functional components. At the same time, it is only the first of what are likely to be many iterative roadmaps over the course of a credit union's transformation. No credit union, or any other organization for that matter, has the crystal-ball foresight to build a roadmap that functions in perpetuity. Agile organizations make it a habit to review plans frequently and adapt as necessary. The initial roadmap's job is to get a credit union on the right path and prescribe incremental successes that ultimately inform the development of future roadmaps.

Instant Insights /

Data Vision vs. Data Strategy: Why Credit Unions Need Both

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