Palace Hotels used data/analytics not just as a decision tool inside teams but as a political instrument to build organizational trust and settle disputes that would otherwise be won by whoever argued loudest. A newly hired head of data/analytics helped disprove internal 'myths' — e.g., the assumption (from an old survey where 40% said they'd like to book via app) that the company needed a mobile booking app — replacing 'the more stubborn person in the room wins' funding dynamics with evidence.
This is a specific application of research within Discovery (Product Discovery Process) (the same myth was killed by direct customer research on the pilot team) and complements Trust-Building via Visible Learning: here the artifact that builds trust is data rather than a visible learning narrative. See VC Seed-Funding Model vs. Corporate Project Model for how this changed what got funded.
At Palace Hotels, the political trust-building power of data wasn't ad hoc — it was institutionalized as a Head of Data/analytics function whose job is to supply both product teams and business stakeholders with one shared, trusted data source for decisions. Standing up this function early gave the org a neutral reference it could point to instead of settling disputes by opinion or seniority; it's the organizational precondition for Data as Political Trust-Builder (Myth-Busting) to keep happening rather than being a one-off win. It also underwrote Team Topology by Business Vertical (Durable Ownership Teams): verticals could be trusted with durable ownership partly because a shared data layer kept them honest and comparable to each other.
Из тем: Transformation in Practice