If a colleague, a C-level or even you (spoiler alert: it’s a good News) are asking “What is the value of the data team?” it signals most of the time a deeper underlying issue. It’s not a question of whether the team provides value or not but rather whether the organization understands and leverages that value effectively.

Why? Simply because a well-positioned data team doesn’t need to justify its existence – their impact should be self-evident and no will ask about it.

The trap

When the data team is reduced to fulfilling ad-hoc requests and/or stakeholders prefer doing their own analyses, it highlights a misunderstanding of the team’s role.

Instead of being seen as strategic partners, the data team is often treated as a service desk, responding to operational demands. This creates a vicious cycle:

  • The team gets bogged down in low-impact tasks and struggle to demonstrate its potential for driving strategic decisions
  • Stakeholders got what they want and finished to be overwhelmed by data, failing to understand what to decide
  • So they decide to continue digging themselves and keep asking ad-hoc requests
  • Loop

What Value Should Look Like

The true value of a data team lies in its ability to guide decision-making, take a step back and uncover opportunities that others might miss.

And this means moving beyond surface-level requests (“Can you get me this number?”), or project without knowing if it’s really useful (“Can you build this dashboard for me”), but focusing on deeper and more strategic questions like:

• “What trends can we identify in our customer data to drive growth?”

• “Which operational bottlenecks are costing us the most, and how can we address them?”

If fact, it’s when the data team is integrated into strategic conversations, its contributions become valuable. Otherwise Data team will just be what it is : a cost center.

Shifting the Perception

And so to escape the cycle of being undervalued, data teams must:

  1. Educate stakeholders: Help them understand what makes a good question – one that leads to actionable insights rather than simple metrics.

  2. Prioritize strategically: Focus on delivering high-impact analyses that demonstrate the team’s potential.

  3. Showcase success: Communicate the tangible business impact of their work, like revenue growth, cost savings, or operational improvements.

By doing this, the question, “What is the value of the data team?” shouldn’t exist in organizations where data is integrated into strategic decisions. If this question arises, it’s not the team’s value that’s in doubt but the organization’s approach to leveraging it. The real challenge isn’t proving the data team’s worth – it’s ensuring their value is so evident that the question never needs to be asked.