“I’d rather take a decision based on data as opposed to anecdote but it is only one part of an ecosystem.”
Weightmans’ Stuart Whittle talks to Gail Jaffa about chairing this year’s PSMG annual summit and of issues surrounding the quest for perfect information, chasing data-driven dreams, and the enduring power of storytelling.
“I’d rather take a decision based on data as opposed to anecdote but it is only one part of an ecosystem.”
Weightmans’ Stuart Whittle talks to Gail Jaffa about chairing this year’s PSMG annual summit and of issues surrounding the quest for perfect information, chasing data-driven dreams, and the enduring power of storytelling.
Stuart Whittle, Chief Technology and Innovation Officer & Partner, Weightmans
stuart.whittle@weightmans.com
Q. We had another successful PSMG annual summit so, thank you again, for being such a great chairman. What were the defining moments and messages from the day in your opinion?
One thing that struck me is that no one notices if you use ChatGPT to generate your opening remarks! Beyond that, for me some of the defining moments were around the fact big data in and of itself isn’t a universal panacea. The bigger the data set the greater the chance you have of spurious correlations and conclusions depending on the methods you are using to analyse and derive insights from the data. Linked to that, it may well be all you need is one useful datum point to give you the insight you are looking for.
Which leads on to one of the challenges offered by a speaker - that everyone is saying they want to be data-led when actually they should be thinking about being insight led, a nuance I really liked. The key point came up with a lot of the discussion was, “So what?” Assuming you have all this data, what are you going to do with it and, with a comment that will have my colleagues rolling their eyes, what is the problem you are trying to solve?
In particular and most importantly, what actual things are you going to do, what decisions are you going to make, what action are you going to take based on the data (or indeed the insight from the data) that you have?
Overall my reflection was we at Weightmans and the profession generally have moved a long way from the Microsoft Access ’95 database I built to capture data to help us manage client audits nearly 30 years ago to a situation where firms now have teams of people and departments like the one we have dedicated to curating, analysing and drawing insight from internal and external data for the benefit of their organisations and of their organisations’ clients.
Q. The summit looked at the role of data and AI in professional services firms and how we can put those meaningfully centre stage. The challenges remain though of adapting to an evolving market and changing scenarios…and getting the right data and insights to the right people at the right time?
Depends on what you mean by AI and what sort of data. One interesting point that came up was around client listening programmes and matter feedback programs and, in particular, how you can turn the often-unstructured MS Word/pdf-based summaries of client listening conversations into structured data that would help you draw out themes and insight from the client listening programme in combination with other structured data that you hold.
Q. One speaker addressed the issue of making decisions based on imperfect information? Do you feel we’re increasingly in a stronger position to make better decisions? Or do dangers remain?
You never have perfect information. I have seen one of the consequences of having a lot of data available is there can be a tendency to ask for yet more data before a decision is made to try and get to a position of perfect information. It can be a delaying tactic to avoid making potentially difficult decisions or driven by concern you might be castigated for making the wrong decisions. Once you have data it’s about making sure it is the right data you need for the decision and you actually understand what it is the data is telling you which in turn requires an understanding of the real-world context that gave rise to the data in the first place.
And you must bear in mind data and insight from data is only one of a number of necessary inputs into decision making. Data rarely in and of itself can tell you the answer in this context but it is very good at helping you know where to look and the questions to ask.
Q. The march of technology and the skills required to maximise that technology can seem bewildering to already busy people? What advice have you?
It’s hard and it’s getting harder with the near constant changes that SaaS suppliers are pushing out. I don’t know if you have seen the latest Outlook client for example but in its current iteration it will cause mayhem in a law firm. I don’t know anyone who has a really good answer to this, me included, and a lot of conversations with my peers are about trying to keep on top of the firehose-like volumes of change coming at us. And we like technology.
The ideal solution is a user experience that isn’t interrupting the workflow of individual professionals and whilst that is conceptually easy to say and grasp it’s nigh on possible to implement when individual professionals all work in their own unique and often idiosyncratic ways.
“You never have perfect information. I have seen one of the consequences of having a lot of data is there can be a tendency to ask for yet more data before a decision is made to try and get to a position of perfect information. It can be a delaying tactic to avoid making potentially difficult decision or driven by concern that you might be castigated for making the wrong decisions.”
“You never have perfect information. I have seen one of the consequences of having a lot of data is there can be a tendency to ask for yet more data before a decision is made to try and get to a position of perfect information. It can be a delaying tactic to avoid making potentially difficult decision or driven by concern that you might be castigated for making the wrong decisions.”
Q. I was struck that, on a day devoted to data and technology, more than one speaker addressed both the human voice and the power of storyteller? I guess it goes back to being human-focused and tech-enabled?
I loved this – and it is a general point about communication more widely – there’s a lot of research that telling stories is an effective way to communicate your message and the principle applies equally to data and the insights you might draw from it; with the caveat you can’t let the story mask the underlying insight like duck infographics where a visually appealing infographic obscures or distorts the data it is representing.
Q. What about us all being realistic about chasing data-driven dreams? And the shift from demographic-based to behaviour-based segmentation?
I am slightly worried that I am becoming old and cynical (or rather older and even more cynical) but we have heard for years things are going to make massive differences in and of themselves whether it is computers, technology in its widest sense, big-data, blockchain, web 3.0, NFTs and now generative AI and, yes, data is hugely powerful and in the right hands and interpreted well.
I’d rather take a decision based on data as opposed to anecdote (data not being the plural of anecdote) but it is only one part of an ecosystem that also, still, needs people and process to work effectively.
Q. Turning to your firm, tell us a little about how Weightmans wanted to use data to propel success. Why was that so important and how have you evolved your approach over time?
Some 15 years ago, to solve a particular issue, we built the beginnings of the data warehouse which now ingests data from our practice management system, case management system, CRM system, HR system, and a number of other smaller systems.
We’ve been able to use the data not only to manage our holistic views of clients and what we are doing for them but also to derive insights for clients who operate sectors as disparate as insurance and social housing. It also has enabled us to develop predictive analytics products such as PREDiCT which we think are unique in the market. We are now working with Microsoft to design the next iteration of our data warehouse to support us through the next 10 to 15 years.
Q. The Weightmans session gave a demo of dashboards for use in services and innovation and how this all works in practice from ideas through to sales. For those not there on the day, can you give us an overview.
At a very high level it’s doing some of the basics in terms of people and process and then having the technology to support it. We have a number of core systems which are the source of truth for “their” data so for e.g., our HR system is the source of truth for information about people, the practice management system is the source of truth for financial information and so on.
We then bring together the data from our HR, PMS, CMS, CRM and a few other systems together in a data warehouse which allows us to view the same data in different ways, for example, by department, by office, by client, by client sector and so on knowing that, through whatever lens you look at the data, you know you are looking at the same data so it will all add up.
We then use a mix of SSRS reporting and Tableau dashboards (albeit we are in the process of moving to Power BI) to surface the data to enable us to report on progress and have holistic views of what we are doing for clients and so on. As an organisation we’re very open about the internal data we have in line with our value of radical transparency as we think it’s important to share so everyone is engaged with the business and with the clients with whom we work.
Q. And, finally, what’s your view of the future? Where are you as a firm going next?
Prediction is difficult especially about the future. That said we have an ambition to become a top 30 national firm to enable us better to service our client base and this year I am going to be reviewing with our teams how our technology will support that ambition.