Data Understood

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Chief Data Officer of DC Thomson

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

DC Thomson is a media company with interests in digital media, newspapers, magazines, comics, cutting edge technology and genealogy

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Data Understood to accomplish?

• To create and deliver a data strategy

SOLUTION

How did you find Data Understood?

Referral

Why did you select Data Understood over others?

• High ratings
• Pricing fit our budget
• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Data Understood were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

The partnership with Data Understood was to design, write and deliver the first comprehensive data strategy at DC Thomson. This included conducting a full audit of data and data practices within the organisation, noting strengths, weaknesses and skills gaps, and taking this information to form a data strategy to support the overall businesss strategy. Further to this work was identifying the priority areas of development that would support short term acceleration as well as long term sustainable growth. Implementation of the strategy has taken the form of translating these priority areas into cross-functional themed workstreams that encompass people from various parts of the business, thus, ensuring as wide a reach as possible. These workstreams each have dedicated missions and outputs and the first phase is due to complete in September 2025. Extending across all of these workstreams is an upskilling project in conjunction with the people team that aims to put in place the long term learning plans for the company.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

A data strategy has been written and forms a key component of the company strategy going forward. The strategy has been shared with the entire company, and supplemented with workshops and online seminars to describe the work and encourage people to get involved. The dedicated workstreams have been setup and are already driving the business forward in multiple areas (OKR setting, removing silos, promoting experimentation).

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

Data Understood have supeb project management. Work is delivered on time and in addition, scope and output is checked multiple times during the process ensuring that the end goal is always of the highest quality. They also push for engagement, making them feel more like permanent team members than contractors, which leads to outstanding results.

What was your primary form of communication with Data Understood?

• In-Person Meeting
• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

The degree to which they immerse themselves in the work. In data it is quite easy (and common) to solve surface level problems for the short term. However, Data Understood push to learn the nuances of the company, its overall strategy, its people and thus, deliver solutions that benefit the company to its core and lay the foundation for a strong future in data.

Are there any areas for improvement or something Data Understood could have done differently?

None that I can think of

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the CEO of Flexible Childcare Services Scotland SCIO and Caerus Opportunities

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We provide childcare services, childcare sector support services and data insights.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Data Understood to accomplish?

• To help us understand what data we could extract from our software product
• To understand what data our potential customers would find useful
• To progress to wireframe data dashboards for future development

SOLUTION

How did you find Data Understood?

Referral

Why did you select Data Understood over others?

• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost
• Referred to me
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Data Understood were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

To better understand the data capabilities within our software product, resulting in defining and designing the first iteration of our software product Caerus's Indicator Dashboard.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Understanding what change our product could make, by identifing the top 3 points for software features, stakeholders, reaction, learning, behavioural change and results. Considering outside factors such as what needed to be in place for success and what might prevent success, then moving to a productisation phase.

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

All work was delivered on time, and presented in a way that our team, who have various knowledge and experience levels in this area, could easily understand. The support we received was flexed as needed to meet us where we were at with regards pre-existing knowledge/understanding.

What was your primary form of communication with Data Understood?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

The empathetic and support approach, quick understanding of what we were trying to achieve, and pateuince in supporting us through the process.

Are there any areas for improvement or something Data Understood could have done differently?

Nothing comes to  mind.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Digital Development Specialist of South of Scotland Enterprise

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

South of Scotland Enterprise are the economic and community development agency for the South of Scotland.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Data Understood to accomplish?

• Deliver an AI and Data workshop
• Empower businesses to think strategically about AI

SOLUTION

How did you find Data Understood?

Online Search

Why did you select Data Understood over others?

• High ratings
• Pricing fit our budget
• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost
• Company values aligned
• Successful completion of ITQ (Invitation to Quote)

How many teammates from Data Understood were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

Data Understood delivered a programme of work entitled 'Leveraging AI and Data for Business'. It spanned 8 workshops delivered over 4 months to business cohorts looking to better understand their own AI readiness and how to strategically implement AI into their business process.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Successful delivery of workshops as per initial scope. Positive feedback from participants.

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

Data Understood were open and always available. They delivered exactly as per scope, and were flexible in the face of environmental challenges outside of our control (weather related). They responded positively to any additional need, and were always more than helpful.

What was your primary form of communication with Data Understood?

• In-Person Meeting
• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

The sense of partnership - at no point did it feel like a purely transactional relationship. Data Understood made me feel like we were both working together to get the absolute best outcomes for businesses in the South of Scotland.

Are there any areas for improvement or something Data Understood could have done differently?

Honestly not. They were responsive, understanding, and pivoted where appropriate to better align with the cohort demographic.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder of a consulting company that focuses on pricing insights for premium spirits brand owners.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Data Understood?

We needed help with the development of a full end-to-end automation process to acquire, transform, and store data in a secure database.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Data Understood has helped us develop and document the automation processes using Python scripts to acquire, transform, and store data. The team has also provided mentoring and assessment of technical staff abilities within our organization.

What is the team composition?

We’ve worked with one teammate from Data Understood.

How did you come to work with Data Understood?

We found Data Understood through word of mouth at a TechScaler event. We chose them over other options because their staff demonstrated a deep understanding of the challenges in our business and the ability to support us.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in May 2024, and the engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

Data Understood’s work has resulted in shortened timescales on the automated processes and increased integrity in the data. Specifically, we’ve seen an 80% reduction in the time taken to complete tasks and consistency of attributes recorded on the data and processes to populate these.

How did Data Understood perform from a project management standpoint?

Data Understood's project management has been excellent. The team delivers on time and has structured communication in a professional manner to keep us updated and discuss options when unexpected events occur in the processes or data. We communicate via calls and emails.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Data Understood’s deep understanding of our problems and ability to communicate with nontechnical teams in a very positive manner to develop a plan that both sides have bought into is impressive.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the director of Games Jobs Live, providing insights into recruiting in the games industry.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Data Understood?

We needed general consultancy and advice about our data strategy and business model.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Data Understood has provided consultancy and advice about our data strategy and business model. The team has run a workshop taking a bunch of our customers, prospective customers, and wider stakeholders through our current product, pulling out what everyone thought was most valuable and what else could be provided. Data Understood has analyzed all the responses, collating them into a report giving a decisive direction that we're planning on following.

Data Understood has run the workshop, taking participants through it step by step, helping them be consistent in terminology, and grouping the feedback into broad categories. The team has ensured participants were happy with the grouping before collating it into a single actionable report.

What is the team composition?

We work with two teammates from Data Understood.

How did you come to work with Data Understood?

We got chatting at an industry event. Data Understood immediately understood what we were trying to do, both in terms of the technical aspects of the data and the implications and possibilities for the business model.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in January 2025, and the engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

Data Understood has provided a report with clear actions and implications. The report has highlighted four clear areas that we should consider putting on our product development roadmap: to have standardized taxonomies, to build confidence in our data, to provide guidance to users on how to use the data, and to form data partnerships to expand our data coverage and enrich the insights available.

How did Data Understood perform from a project management standpoint?

Data Understood has delivered on time and responded well to our needs. Everything has been prompt and well communicated. We primarily communicate through online video calls.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Data Understood has inspired so much confidence in the workshop participants that several of them have told me afterward that they are more likely to work with us just because of the workshop.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, Data Understood has met all my expectations brilliantly.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Head of Digital Subscriptions of DC Thomson Ltd

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Publishing, digital media, events, radio

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Data Understood to accomplish?

• KPI reporting

SOLUTION

How did you find Data Understood?

Referral

Why did you select Data Understood over others?

Referred to me

How many teammates from Data Understood were assigned to this project?

1 Employee

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

Defining and presentation of KPIs for a new part of the business, to be presented to SLT.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Creation of KPI dashboards from an uncleaned raw data set

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

Data Understood delivered all elements that were under their control on time and as requested.  

What was your primary form of communication with Data Understood?

Virtual Meeting

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

Data Understood were very experienced in working with imperfect data set up and could advise not only on data services but could also draw on real life experiences, where it was helpful, to support the team beyond this, e.g. data definitions etc.
They provided costed structure and solutions to create an ongoing credible data management capability.

Are there any areas for improvement or something Data Understood could have done differently?

No.