The Hidden Power of Virtual Analytics Teams
How analytics leaders can build impactful teams without budget, authority, or official support
Digital analytics teams have been woefully understaffed for two decades. i've watched this challenge persist across organizations, industries, and economic cycles. And it's not getting better. If anything, the expectations placed on analytics teams are growing faster than the resources allocated to them.
Here's what i've learned: The most powerful analytics teams aren't built through budget approvals or organizational restructuring. They're built through evangelism, relationship building, and a fundamental shift in how we think about leadership in the data space.
The Reality of Being Understaffed
When i was given the opportunity to run an analytics practice client-side, i was a team of one tasked with strategy and execution across data collection, analysis, reporting, and optimization for 20+ different brands. It was, frankly, impossible to do well by myself.
The traditional response would be to build a business case, request headcount, and wait for approval. But i quickly realized that path wasn't going to work. i was never going to be given the budget to hire team members. i was never going to get the official support to have other team members work under my direction.
So i had to find another way.
From Analyst to Evangelist
Out of necessity, i discovered that my role needed to fundamentally change. i couldn't just be an analyst buried in data. i needed to become a politician, an evangelist, a relationship builder. i needed to sell not just the value of data to the organization, but inspire individuals to see how data could become their superpower.
This meant investing real, meaningful time in people as individuals. Not surface-level networking, but genuine connection. i spent months observing colleagues across teams, what they said in meetings, what they didn't say, what lit them up, what frustrated them. i hung out at the company foosball table, went to lunch, had real conversations about their professional passions and personal motivations.
The goal wasn't to create a one-size-fits-all "data is important" message. It was to understand what would genuinely inspire each person to embrace data as part of their role and, ultimately, join my virtual team.
Finding Individual Motivations
For the engineer, data meant the joy of building clean, meaningful architecture that actually got used. For the product manager, it was the competitive advantage of understanding what to build before the competition figured it out. For the marketer, it was the ability to craft more compelling campaigns based on real behavioral insights, not assumptions.
But discovering these motivations required detective work. It meant showing up authentically, listening carefully, and putting in the emotional labor to understand what made each person tick both professionally and personally.
The Art of Working in the Shadows
The key to building virtual teams is starting small and working quietly. Don't announce your strategy. Don't ask for permission. Just begin building relationships and demonstrating value.
i learned to focus my energy on people who showed genuine interest rather than trying to convert everyone. When someone's eyes lit up during a data conversation, i invested more time there. When someone consistently seemed disengaged despite my best efforts, i moved on.
This approach required knowing when to be subtle and when to be bold. Sometimes i overstepped. Sometimes i was reprimanded for recruiting talent from other teams or inspiring people to work outside their official job descriptions. But i felt my heart was in the right place, i was trying to create something meaningful that would benefit everyone involved.
Finding Hidden Analytical Talent
One of the most rewarding aspects of building virtual teams is discovering analytical brilliance in unexpected places. i met my future business partner and 33 Sticks co-founder, Hila, when she was doing SOX compliance analysis. i could see her analytical gifts were being underutilized, so i pulled her aside and asked for help with the overwhelming analysis workload i had on my plate.
It wasn't sanctioned by the company, but it's what i needed to do to be successful and to help the company be successful, whether they knew it or not.
Finding these "Hilas" has been rare, but when it happens, it's transformational. In some cases, showing people their analytical powers has completely changed their career trajectories. That makes me incredibly proud and demonstrates the broader impact of this approach beyond just getting work done.
The Mindset Shift
The critical realization for analytics leaders is this that our role isn't IN the data, it's outside of it.
We get comfortable collecting, reporting, and analyzing. But as leaders, our primary job is evangelism, inspiration, and relationship building. We need to help others see how data can unlock better products, more positive customer experiences, career advancement, or simply the joy of uncovering hidden patterns in human behavior.
This mindset shift is fundamental. Instead of seeing yourself as an analyst who occasionally needs to communicate findings, see yourself as an evangelist who happens to be excellent with data.
Why Virtual Teams Are a Competitive Advantage
Virtual analytics teams aren't a consolation prize for organizations that can't afford "real" teams. When built thoughtfully, they can be more powerful than traditional hierarchical structures because they're based on genuine inspiration rather than assigned responsibilities.
When an engineer integrates data collection into a product because they're genuinely motivated to understand user behavior, and not because they were assigned a ticket, the quality and thoughtfulness of that implementation is fundamentally different.
When a marketer digs deeper into post-click behavior because they're inspired to craft more meaningful campaigns, and not because it's required reporting, the insights they uncover and act upon are more impactful.
Getting Started Today
You don't need anyone's permission to begin building your virtual analytics team. Start by identifying colleagues who show genuine curiosity about data or express frustrations that data could help solve.
Invest time in understanding their individual motivations. What would career success look like for them? What challenges keep them up at night? How could better data insights make their professional life more rewarding?
Begin small conversations. Share insights that directly relate to their priorities. Offer to help with challenges they care about. Work in the shadows initially, proving value before drawing attention to your approach.
Focus on the people who respond positively rather than trying to convert skeptics. Build trust through consistency and genuine care for their success.
The Transformational Impact
If you put in the effort to build meaningful relationships and inspire colleagues across teams to embrace data as part of their role, i guarantee it will be transformative unlike almost anything else you've ever done before.
Notice what we haven't talked about in this entire discussion, data capture frameworks, conversion rate calculations, or statistical models. We've talked about people. We've talked about inspiring people to understand how data can be a superpower for them in their roles, and why they should join your team, sanctioned or not, to make that happen.
That's not a coincidence. In a world where analytics teams will always be understaffed, the leaders who succeed will be those who understand that the most powerful data initiatives are fundamentally human initiatives.
jason thompson is the ceo of 33 Sticks, an analytics consultancy focused on helping organizations build more human-centered approaches to data strategy. Connect with him on LinkedIn or schedule a free 1:1 consultation with him.
