Why people don't trust your numbers and what you can do about it
Written by The Count Team
Discover why data trust breaks down and learn strategies to rebuild it, ensuring your team's insights are valued and impactful.
"Those numbers aren't right."
I’m not sure there is another phrase capable of eliciting as much rage, exasperation, and anxiety from a data person as this one. It is an instant dismissal of hours or days of hard work, an attack on our abilities and talents, and a reminder that the real world is not as logical or predictable as the data we work with.
This phrase is a signal that something is wrong, or likely many things are wrong. Fundamentally, this question speaks to a lack of trust. Maybe this business user doesn’t trust anything that comes from the data team because they’ve been wrong in the past. Maybe they don’t trust you because they haven’t worked with you yet. Maybe they don’t trust data at all and prefer to rely on anecdotal evidence, or maybe the numbers are actually wrong.