After years of helping organisations turn data into useful insight, I decided to build something of my own: Predictive Insight by Daniela Vasile.
One lesson has stayed with me through that transition: building dashboards can feel easier than building relationships.
As data professionals, we learn to investigate problems, find patterns and help people make better-informed decisions. But a certification cannot do the work of introducing yourself, starting a conversation and earning the trust of someone who does not know you yet.
Listening comes before the solution
Starting a consultancy has reminded me that the first task is understanding. What is difficult for this organisation? What is taking too much effort? What do its people need to feel more confident about?
A conversation about reporting can turn into a conversation about competing priorities, unclear processes or a team that has been asked to do more with the same resources. Those details matter when shaping a useful solution.
Trust grows through how we work
For me, that means explaining recommendations clearly, asking careful questions and being open about what the available information can and cannot tell us.
It also means respecting the tools and knowledge already in an organisation. A solution should fit the people who will maintain it, with documentation and a handover that help them keep using it.
I want Predictive Insight to reflect that combination: analytical rigour, practical help and a human way of working.
I am still learning the business-building side of independent consultancy. Alongside the analytics, there are lessons in sales, relationships and finding the organisations where my experience can make a useful difference.
This space is somewhere to share those lessons, as well as thoughts on data and decision-making. Building something of my own is a new chapter, and listening remains at the centre of it.