At every Friends of Data event, we ask data leaders about the ROI of their data teams. And every time, we get a laugh — the kind that says, “Oh yeah, that thing.”
Let’s not mince words: Measuring data team ROI is tough — so tough that we recommend letting stakeholders speak for your data team rather than trying to quantify data team impact. Few clear, repeatable North Star metrics exist, and much of the most valuable work is done through partnerships with other teams. This is why it comes as no surprise that many experienced data leaders say the best way to show impact isn’t through a single metric — it’s through stakeholder voices, process improvements, and tracking where data led to change.
We rounded up advice from a few different data leaders we've talked to, including:
Daniel Sternberg, Head of Data at Notion
Tony Avino, Senior Manager, Analytics Platform at HubSpot
Ian Macomber, Head of Analytics Engineering and Data Science at Ramp
Tristan Handy, Founder & CEO of dbt Labs
Kate Urquiola, Senior Manager of Go-to-Market Analytics at Calendly
Pedram Navid, Chief Dashboard Officer at Dagster
Snehal Karanjkar, Product Analytics Lead at Kong
The main takeaway from these discussions is this: There is no one way to measure data team ROI, but you still need to communicate some sense of impact to inform budget and headcount decisions — and there's a few different ways to do that.
1. Find the dollar impacts, if they exist
It’s not always easy to draw a straight line from data work to revenue — which is why qualitative impact and stakeholder trust matter so much. But if you're working on paid marketing, churn prevention, and key business KPIs, there may be some dollars to report.
Look for decisions-to-dollars numbers in paid marketing. While dollar ROI can be hard to come by, dbt’s Tristan Handy recommends looking for dollar evidence in marketing campaigns.
"You're looking for places where you can say: I did the research, I made a decision, and here’s a direct result of that decision.' Those areas aren’t everywhere, but they exist very frequently in the marketing domain.” — Tristan Handy, dbt
Identify dollar outcomes based on churn analysis. Sai Srigiriaju, Principal of Growth Strategy and Ops at ClickUp, saw that his team's data app built for investigating churn saved ClickUp more than a million dollars.
"We built an operational report that lets our customer success team narrow the customers they reach out to and personalize outreach. This program saved a lot more than a million dollars." — Sai Srigiriaju, ClickUp
See if any business health metrics your team set up increased ARR. At Kong, Snehal Karanjkar's team tracks average selling price (ASP) which ultimately contributed to ARR.
“Tracking ASP across segments allowed us to identify a trend of higher spending within a specific customer tier. This led us to prioritize product enhancements for that segment, which boosted retention rates, contributing to ARR.” — Snehal Karanjkar, Kong
2. Measure internal workflows: Process improvements, speed, and stakeholder trust
Much of the most valuable data work doesn’t translate neatly into direct ROI — but that doesn’t mean it lacks impact. Look for signals around internal workflows that correlate with ROI, like stakeholder trust, data velocity, and operational efficiency.
Do an internal NPS. HubSpot's product analytics engineering team sends out a survey to see how satisfied their internal customers are.
“We typically like to do an eNPS. We ask: ‘How easy is it for you to do your job on a day-to-day basis? How easy is it to find the data you need? Do you trust the data?’” - Tony Avino, HubSpot
Track time-to-insight for requests and big projects. Tracking data-request-to-answer, and quantifying how quickly the team can deliver large projects, like the next month’s forecast, can show how your team is increasing data velocity.
"A lot of reporting that goes up to management is: How quickly can I get the next month forecast or how quickly can I get the reoccurring reporting done?" — Tony Avino, HubSpot
Track how many people are using your data tools. Seeing the internal traffic to data products can help the data team prioritize resources and identify investments for self-serve motions.
“We have weekly active users of various data tools, because the ROI is not just in the data, but in the product teams working more effectively and with higher confidence in the decisions because of the data.” — Daniel Sternberg, Notion
Show that stakeholders to ensure they have the data they need, when they need it. Pedram Navid of Dagster reminds us that ROI is often about just making sure teams have everything they need to forecast.
"What is the ROI? The ROI is success of your company. It's not having a marketing person wonder: Where are my leads? Where's my pipeline coming from? How am I doing today? Do I understand my business? Can I forecast? If you don't have that (tight data partnership), your business fails.” - Pedram Navid, Dagster
3. Focus on impact: Did your data drive change?
In the hunt for ROI, it can be easy to lose the forest for the trees. The key is not forcing a perfect ROI number — it’s about whether your data influences decisions and drives meaningful change.
Track the changes your team enables. Dagster's Pedram Navid has seen data folks get caught up in 'being right;' but what really matters is driving change and being able to tell that story.
"Being right is really valuable early in your career. The hard problem is doing something about it — convincing those who don't believe you, networking, and getting alignment. The job isn't to be right. The job is to enact change." —Pedram Navid, Dagster
Identify which decisions your team contributed to. Dashboards alone don’t create value — decisions do. When your work helps others make better-informed decisions, you can include that in your team's impact report.
“The way I tie it back to the reporting is: ‘What decisions do these things enable?" - Sai Srigiriaju, ClickUp
Prioritize the biggest opportunities. Chasing a neat ROI metric can sometimes lead teams away from the most valuable work. Ramp's Head of Data, Ian Macomber, advises identifying the one area where you need to be world-class in six months and focusing resources there. As a result of being embedded on high-impact projects, and not acting as just a service org, the ROI of the data team also exists within that project's success.
"We say: What is the number one area where we need to be world-class six months from now? Let's invest heavily in that and ignore everything else for the time being." - Ian Macomber, Ramp
Don’t overlook exploratory insights. Not all data work directly ties to revenue, but shaping how the company thinks about the product can be of enormous impact and value. Daniel from Notion refers to these learnings as “exploratory findings,” that influence product decisions.
“Exploratory findings really shape how people think and show, over time, that we know how to measure our product. They’re ideas about behaviors we want to drive in the product that will help us drive more usage of Notion and more revenue over time.” — Daniel Sternberg, Notion
4. Invest in visibility to build influence
Finally, data is a shared story — shaped by every team that uses it. Highlight your data team's work isn't just about recognition, it helps other teams, builds influence, and secures resources.
Keep leadership in the loop. At Kong, Snehal Karanjkar’s team built an interactive business KPI report they built that was so valuable to leadership that the team received more resources for headcount and the approval of tools for the data team.
“Leadership’s feedback was: ‘You guys are always on top of your business. We want you to launch this for the entire product.’" — Snehal Karanjkar, Kong
Start a Slack channel for data storytelling. A dedicated Slack channel can be a simple but powerful way to showcase ongoing data insights. Kate Urquiola from Calendly commits to ongoing communication from Slack to share findings and engage stakeholders.
“Now we have a Calendly data insights channel where we do data storytelling. We’re regarded as top performers because our work is deemed more credible and is more widely surfaced.” — Kate Urquiola, Calendly
Data ROI is a shared story told by the teams you’re serving
More important than a singular ROI number is the data team’s impact and how you communicate it. It’s the tangible changes your team drives within the business, the processes they improve, and the trust they build with stakeholders. If teams are seeing gains from data, your impact will speak for itself. Your story will be theirs to tell – and they’ll be excited to tell it.
After all, as Pedram said, “The [data team's] ROI is the success of your company.”