"If you’re always building what stakeholders ask for, you’re not doing data work - you’re doing customer service."

Why This Matters

You've probably had this experience: a stakeholder comes in, asks for a dashboard, and you build it. No questions asked.

But here’s the truth: this is how data teams become glorified report factories. This is how budgets get wasted, dashboards get ignored, and business outcomes don't improve.

This newsletter is about how to break out of that cycle. How to stop being an order taker and become a strategic partner instead.

Let me show you exactly how that looks in practice, using a real story from a recent client engagement.

The Problem with Building What You're Told

A client reached out and asked me to build a marketing dashboard.

This is a classic request. Easy to say yes to. But I politely rejected.

And here's why:

• The marketing team was being re-organized: There was no one in marketing assigned to make decisions based on this dashboard.
• The marketing strategy was in flux. Old goals were outdated, and new ones hadn’t been defined yet.
• It wasn’t clear what decisions would even be made using this dashboard.
• And I knew from experience that dashboards need iteration. You don’t get it right the first time - you work with stakeholders to refine them based on feedback, evolving metrics, and real needs.

So instead of saying “sure, let me build that,” I asked questions.

Digging Deeper: What Was Really Going On

I started a conversation to understand the real business challenge behind the dashboard request.

Here’s what I found out:

→ The client was changing their checkout funnel. → Previously, users either bought something or dropped out - no leads were captured. → Now, they wanted to allow users to save their progress, so they could collect leads and follow up later. → In other words, they were shifting from direct purchase to lead generation and nurturing.

That’s a major strategic change.

And a general-purpose marketing dashboard wouldn’t solve the problem.

They didn’t need to look at top-level metrics.

They needed to understand:

• Which channels generated leads
• How much they could invest in new leads
• What types of leads converted
• How to profile and nurture those leads over time

Not something that can be solved with a dashboard.

The Alternative Path: What We Did Instead

We pivoted.

Instead of building a dashboard that no one could use, we focused on enabling a strategy that someone would actually act on.

Here’s what we did:

1 Created a new tracking concept

• Defined events and properties necessary to capture leads inside the checkout funnel
• Aligned tracking with the new lead-nurturing model

2 Implemented new tracking on the website

• Roll out event tracking that supports lead identification

3 Changed the data model

• The data warehouse had no concept of “leads” so we are introducing it now
• Built relationships between leads, sessions, users, and marketing channels

4 Built a lead profiling data mart

• Created a structured, queryable layer focused on understanding leads, acquisition channels, acquisition costs, lifetime value
• Enabled segmentation by source, sales funnel, and other criteria

And most importantly: we kept the project laser-focused on one specific use case.

Lessons Learned: How to Stop Being an Order Taker

This story highlights a deeper pattern:

Stakeholders often don’t know what they really need.

They ask for what they think will help, and that’s often a dashboard or report.

Our job isn’t to build what they ask for. Our job is to help them clarify what they’re trying to achieve.

Here’s how:

1. Don’t assume the request is the need. → A dashboard request might really be a strategic shift in disguise. → Ask: “What decision are you trying to make with this?”

2. Look for missing context. → Who will use this? → What’s changing in the business? → What happens if this dashboard works - what do we do next?

3. Prioritize use cases over features. → You’re not delivering a chart, you're enabling a decision. → Focus on one specific, high-value decision flow at a time.

4. Challenge unclear goals. → If stakeholders don’t know what they want to measure or decide, don’t guess. → Help them define success - or push back until they can.

5. Build the foundation before the dashboard. → That might mean updating tracking, reshaping the data model, or defining new concepts.

The Bottom Line

It’s tempting to say “yes” to every stakeholder request.

But that’s how you stay stuck in the role of order taker.

If you want to be a strategic partner, you need to do the hard thing:

Say no to building something useless and say yes to doing the work that drives real impact.

Here’s the mindset shift:

Don’t just answer the ask. Solve the problem behind it.

The next time someone asks you for a dashboard, don’t open up your BI tool.

Start the conversation.

Ask what decision they want to make. Figure out what’s broken or missing. And build the foundations that will actually help them move forward.

That’s how you become an indispensable partner - not a reporting machine.

Until next week,

Sebastian