More Data Is Not Insight; It Is Liability
We confuse volume with value. But in a high-end firm, a bloated database is not an asset; it is a target. Learn the art of the 'Minimum Useful Dataset'.
The Toxic Asset in Your Server Room
We look at our dashboards and we see numbers climbing. More leads. More fields. More rows. We feel productive. But why?
Because we have confused accumulation with intelligence.
We act as if every piece of data is a gold coin that increases our net worth. But client data is not gold; it is uranium. Kept in small, strictly managed quantities, it powers the business. Hoarded in a pile in the basement, it becomes radioactive.
When you collect everything “just in case,” you are not building a data lake. You are building a swamp. Enfin, you are building a liability.
The Liability: The Attack Surface
Let us speak plainly about risk. When you hold data you do not need, you are assuming 100% of the risk for 0% of the utility.
Imagine you are a boutique law firm. You collect the “Home Address” of every newsletter subscriber because the default form asked for it. You have 5,000 addresses. You never mail them a physical letter.
Then, a breach happens.
Because you held that data, a minor security incident becomes a reportable data breach. You must notify regulators. You must notify clients. You must damage your reputation. All for a field you never used.
This is not bad luck; it is bad management.
Hackers cannot steal what you do not have. The most secure data is the data you never collected. By hoarding, you are effectively painting a target on your back and inviting the world to take a shot.
The Safeguard: The Minimum Useful Dataset
The sophisticated alternative is the Minimum Useful Dataset (MUD).
This is a philosophy of elegance. Before we add a field to a database, we ask: “What is the specific business decision this piece of data allows us to make?”
- Field: Job Title. Decision: Allows us to customize the proposal. -> Keep.
- Field: Date of Birth. Decision: We want to send a birthday email. -> Delete. (As we have discussed, this is tacky).
- Field: Phone Number. Decision: We might want to call them? -> Delete (Until they actually book a call).
When you strip away the noise, your data becomes clean. Your liability shrinks. Your storage costs drop. And most importantly, when you look at your metrics, you actually see the humans behind them, rather than a wall of static.
Stop counting the rows. Start weighing the risk.
FAQs
But what if we need the data for future AI analysis?
Then you collect it in the future. Hoarding 'rotting' data hoping an AI will magically fix it is a fantasy, not a strategy.
Doesn't more data help us understand the client better?
No. A conversation helps you understand the client. A thousand data points just create noise that drowns out the signal.
How do we decide what to cut?
If you haven't used a field in the last 6 months to make a concrete business decision, it goes. Be ruthless.