Insight
7/4/25
Why Your Data Team Isn’t Delivering ROI (2025 Org Design Guide)
Table of Contents
Most data teams fail because of reporting lines, not talent. Learn where your data team should report, how to measure ROI, and avoid the $500k mistake.
Why Your Data Team Isn’t Delivering ROI (It’s Not a Talent Problem, It’s Ownership)
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 to 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 data team ends up measured on the wrong scorecard. They brag about pipelines built and dashboards migrated — while executives still don’t trust the numbers.
👉 Related reading: 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 work aligns with business priorities, not engineering sprints.
Impact: Data team is embedded with business stakeholders, not siloed in IT.
📌 Pro tip: Don’t hire a Chief Data Officer too early. Start by embedding the team under COO/CEO with a translator role bridging business and technical.
👉 Related reading: How to build a lean data foundation for AI
How Should Data Teams Be Measured in 2025?
Most 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).
This is the difference between a service desk and a growth engine.
👉 Related reading: 90-day roadmap to proving data ROI
Playbook for Structuring Data Teams Correctly
Change the Reporting Line
Move data out from under IT/Finance.
Have them report to the COO/CEO.
Give Them a Business Mission
No Jira tickets.
Every initiative aligns with company objectives (revenue, margin, growth).
Measure on P&L Impact
Stop celebrating activity (pipelines built).
Celebrate outcomes (margin expansion, LTV increase).
Embed Translator Roles
First hire ≠ engineer or analyst.
It’s someone who can translate CFO/COO goals into data strategy.
The Bottom Line
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.
