What’s the best way to get buy-in for your organization’s first data analytics project?

The only success I have seen here is a skunk works project creating new graphics on unknown data points. When C level see new info in color it gets funded.

Modern data analytics is a really important area, but the challenge is that you can’t say to your CFO, "I need a multimillion down payment because I'm going to build this thing and in the next fiscal year, I'll buy the tools, find the staff, etc.” It's more realistic to start with a data problem. There are a lot of data problems you can get cleaned up, and then you can work toward some early modeling activities. After that, you'll think about what it means to have 50 models in production and how you can support that in the longer term.

You may have experience with various forms of technology but by comparison, data analytics is not as formulaic as an information security stack, for example. At this point, there are some basic security building blocks that you can buy and put together to convince yourself and the board that you've done the appropriate diligence, and have followed the normative architecture for what companies of your size and industry do to protect themselves.