Data-Driven Decision Making - Certificate Program Fall 2024

Local government professionals agree that evidence-based decision making is the best practice. Even so, the majority of cities don’t use data for their strategic planning processes. The truth is the overwhelming mountain of “big data” often paralyzes action. 

So how can leaders harness the right community data in the most practical ways for the best return? In this certificate program, Polco data science experts will teach the best ways to incorporate community information into the planning process. Leaders will learn how to capture the right data and ensure community and/or staff feedback is truly representative. 

What Is Data-Driven Decision Making?

Instead of using simple intuition, assumptions, and/or anecdotes, data-driven decision making (DDDM) gives sound credence to new policies and initiatives. DDDM brings together appropriate data sources, analysis, and metrics to help inform choices, reasoning, and actions.
 

Advantages of Data-Driven Decision Making

Data-driven decision-making increases inclusivity, defensibility, and the opportunity for performance measurement. Most importantly, DDDM increases the likelihood that government leaders and staff decisions produce the desired outcomes. 

Learning Objectives

• Learn the best practices to gather data and how to formulate questions data can help answer.
• Understand how to use data to make better decisions for strategic planning, budgeting, and performance measurement.
• Understand how to design a sustainable data-driven performance measurement system that can help track overall performance in a meaningful way.
• Discover promising practices in transparency and accountability to build government trust at the local level.