FAQs
What is Madison Data Advisory?
Madison Data Advisory is an independent consulting firm in Madison, WI focused on providing data leadership services to organizations with data and AI needs. Its founder, Tony Dahlager, is the primary consultant who delivers services.
What services does Madison Data Advisory offer?
Madison Data Advisory offers two main types of services to organizations.
Interim data leadership services: Retain a seasoned data leadership consultant from Madison Data Advisory until you are able to fill the vacant data leadership position
Data leadership advisory services: Retain data leadership advisory services if you want help addressing data strategy, data execution, or cultural issues within your data team. This can either be in the form of a strategic assessment or an advisory retainer
What is interim data leadership?
Turnover and attrition are critical issues that impact data teams regularly. The average tenure of a high-level data leader is still less than 3 years on average. While waiting to fill the leadership vacancy, businesses still have critical data initiatives that must stay on-track. A non-technical executive is often forced to carry the additional burden of leadership in the vacancy until the position is filled.
Madison Data Advisory offers a bridge through a fractional short-term leadership engagement to keep strategic data initiatives on-track, lead the day-to-day needs of the individuals on the data team, and to help organizations identify the best data leader for them to hire or promote from within into the full-time role.
When are data leadership advisory services valuable?
Individual data leaders come from diverse backgrounds that may have been technical or non-technical roles.
A leader from a technical background typically lacks experience in people management, business strategy, and overall leadership. This results in data teams that struggle to communicate with other teams within the business and often feel disconnected from the overall business strategy of the organization.
A leader from a non-technical business background typically lacks technical experience that makes it difficult for them to identify risks and issues in their team’s data strategy and day-to-day execution of data management. Without best practices in-mind, they find themselves learning technical lessons the hard way as data and demand for information scales.
Data leadership advisory services from Madison Data Advisory allows executives to augment their team’s strengths and weaknesses with a Unicorn-type data leader who has both the technical and the business executive experience. Our advisory services always aim to coach leaders to grow to be independent to avoid a long-term dependency on an external consultant.
Are data leadership or advisory services expensive?
We can work with organizations of all sizes to provide value within their budget. We work with you to make sure you’re retaining the right type of services for the right amount of time with a clear exit strategy to provide a return on investment.
Who is Tony Dahlager?
Tony Dahlager is the founding owner of Madison Data Advisory and the primary consultant for services. He is a seasoned data leadership executive who loves working with clients on their hardest data-related problems. He is passionate about consulting that delivers measurable value on client investment. He is a high-capacity leader and has a track record of a decade-plus of managing multiple successful consulting engagements concurrently. With Tony, you get the best of both worlds in the value of fractional leadership, and the impact of a savvy executive.
Where can I learn more about Madison Data Advisory’s views on data and leadership?
There are four main ways to learn more about Madison Data Advisory’s viewpoint on the data industry and healthy data leadership.