One of the key principles from Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People is to “begin with the end in mind.” I've found this idea invaluable in many areas of my life, especially when making decisions. In today’s fast-paced world, we constantly face tough choices. Having a clear guiding principle can help us navigate these decisions with more confidence. I’d like to share a few examples of how I’ve applied this concept in my work.

Data Engineering

In data engineering, one of the most important questions to ask is: How will the data be accessed? These access patterns should drive your requirements. Questions like: How often will the data be accessed? How fresh does it need to be? What latency is acceptable? How much data will be queried at once? Without clear answers to these questions, making the right decisions is nearly impossible. For example, should you use an object store or a Massively Parallel Processing (MPP) database? You won’t know unless you begin with the end in mind.

Dashboards and Reports

Another great workplace example is dashboards and reports. Presenting data in a meaningful way can be incredibly helpful, but the emphasis here is on can. I’ve both created and seen countless dashboards that ended up being completely useless. If a dashboard doesn’t help someone make data-driven decisions, it’s essentially a waste of time. By understanding who the consumers are and what they’re trying to achieve, we can ensure the data we present is truly valuable. Again, always begin with the end in mind.

Data Science

Finally, let's consider data science. Do you want to predict churn, or do you want to reduce it? If we keep the end in mind, the goal becomes clear: reducing churn. Predicting churn is only useful if we know how to act on that information. Otherwise, it’s just a prediction with no tangible outcome. We need to test different interventions on various customer segments to see what positively impacts the business. But keep in mind, poorly targeted treatments can backfire and actually increase churn. Beginning with the end in mind can help avoid such pitfalls.