Why Your Data Team Isn’t Delivering ROI. It’s Not a Talent Problem — It’s Ownership
Most mid-size firms spend $500k+ on data teams with little ROI. Here’s why the issue isn’t talent or tools, but ownership — and how to fix it.
Ali Z.
𝄪
CEO @ aztela
Table of Contents
Most mid-size companies spend $500k–$1M per year on data teams. Yet the CEO still asks:
“Why don’t we have ROI from all this investment?”
The truth?
You don’t have a data problem.
You have an ownership problem.
Why Data Teams Fail Under IT or Finance
When data teams report into IT or Finance, they’re set up to fail.
Under IT/CTO:
Mission: stability, uptime, feature releases.
Result: data team becomes a ticket desk, measured on pipelines — not impact.
Under Finance/CFO:
Mission: compliance, audits, closing books.
Result: data team drowns in reconciliations — not growth.
The team ends up measured on the wrong scorecard. They brag about dashboards migrated and pipelines built — while executives still don’t trust the numbers.
(Related: Why Executives Don’t Trust Dashboards)
Where Should Data Teams Report in a 500-Person Company?
In mid-market firms (50–500 FTE), the best reporting line is directly to the CEO or COO.
Why?
Alignment: Mission shifts from “close tickets” to “grow revenue, reduce costs, minimize risk.”
Focus: Data priorities align with business outcomes, not engineering sprints.
Impact: The data team embeds with business stakeholders instead of siloing in IT.
📌 Pro tip: Don’t rush into hiring a Chief Data Officer. Start by embedding the team under the COO/CEO with a translator role bridging business and technical.
(Related: How to Build a Lean Data Foundation for AI)
How Should Data Teams Be Measured in 2025?
Most data teams are measured on:
Dashboards built
Pipelines migrated
Latency reduced
None of these matter if the business impact isn’t there.
Instead, measure:
Revenue influenced (e.g., churn reduced, CAC lowered).
Costs saved (e.g., cloud spend reduced by 30%).
Risk minimized (e.g., compliance gaps closed).
That’s the difference between a service desk and a growth engine.
(See also: 90-Day Roadmap to Proving Data ROI)
Playbook for Structuring Data Teams Correctly
1. Change the Reporting Line
Move data out from under IT/Finance. Have them report to the COO/CEO.
2. Give Them a Business Mission
No Jira tickets. Every initiative aligns with company objectives (revenue, margin, growth).
3. Measure on P&L Impact
Stop celebrating activity (pipelines built). Celebrate outcomes (margin expansion, LTV increase).
4. Embed Translator Roles
The first hire isn’t an engineer or analyst. It’s someone who can translate CFO/COO goals into a data roadmap.
The Blunt Truth
You’re not paying $500k for a data team to close tickets.
You’re paying for growth, direction, and competitive edge.
If your team sits under IT or Finance, they’ll never deliver it.
Fix the ownership. Align the mission. Measure the right outcomes.
That’s how you turn your data team from a service desk into a growth engine.
Schedule a Data Strategy Assessment and learn how to reset your data team for ROI in 90 days.
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