Today's business decisions require technology for solid info management.

“There is too much info, what do I do?”  “Do I need more data before I can make a decision?” “Where is the best information?”

You have probably heard or said one of these questions in the course of looking at a problem and trying to make a decision.

Google CEO Eric Schmidt, at the Techonomy conference in August 2010, stated “Every two days now we create as much information as we did from the dawn of civilization up until 2003. That’s something like five exabytes of data.” That is a lot of information and its growth is expected to continue into the foreseeable future.

So what can you do to discover information, learn about possible answers, and make decisions? There are no one-sized fits all solution or no one action to tackle all questions. However, you can develop an approach that can be utilized whenever the need arises.

1. Separate the daily scanning of information (weather, email, traffic, reading blogs, Twitter) from the specific searches needed to help make a decision (e.g., “What are the top swine producing companies in the U.S.?”). Daily scanning is important and provides the opportunity for serendipitous information discovery. However, sometimes specific information research is required. Doing a specific search requires thinking about the end in mind: some set of information that allows you to act and decide.
2. Put some resource restrictions on any specific search activity you start. Try to avoid the trap of collecting for the collection’s sake. Why? Because you can’t find and know everything. The trap is the idea that the collection of the information itself will improve your ability to address the problem; you become focused on the act of the collection and not on getting to a decision making point.
3. Organize the collected material. If the specific search is simple or narrow, there may be nothing more to do than look at the information on a website, make your decision, and move forward (ex “What are the top swine producing companies in the US?” yields Pork Powerhouses 2010: Back in Black). More complex questions or uncertainty in the search will change your approach and you need a way to keep organized (ex, tackling “Can we get a meeting with the top ten Pork Powerhouse companies?“).

John Blue of Truffle Media is an expert at putting technology to work to manage business processes. See the AgChat archives for an example of his efforts.

Finally, make a decision. Any doubt or uncertainty in the way you performed your search will influence your decision. Ideally, you want to remove uncertainty as much as possible by using a approach that provides some confidence in the search results.

What are some processes and tools to help me find answers to my questions?

Where to begin? Google, Yahoo!, or Microsoft’s Bing as search starting points are good enough for most people. There are also other search engines available that help identify niche information sources. 100 Useful Tips and Tools to Research the Deep Web is a good staring article on some of these alternative search sites.

Learn to tweak the tools. You may want something a bit more specific returned than what the basic search provides. All the major search engines provide tools to focus your search. 12 Quick Tips To Search Google Like An Expert, 40+ Bing Tools, Tips and Tricks, and Yahoo! Search Tips offer great examples on how to refine your search term. My favorite? Using Google to search within a specific site. For example, site:usda.gov “crop data” will return only items from the USDA.gov site that have the key phrase “crop data”. This tip is helpful when you believe something exists on a site and you don’t want all the Google-fluff displayed.

Build your starting points. Over time you will discover some web sites are better at searching and providing information than others. For example, I find the Wall Street Journal helpful for daily business news but somewhat difficult to search. The USDA.gov site I know is a deep repository of agriculture data but sometimes I need noodle around with Google to find specific information. I find better marketing and PR information on specialized sites like MarketingProfs.com and MarketingSherpa.com. For people and company info? I prefer LinkedIn.com. What are your preferred search starting points?

Collect and organize. Searches bring back a bunch of information that need some sort of metal processing or analysis. Tools to help categorize and organize include Evernote, AskSam, Basecamp, and Google Docs. I prefer Evernote for personal use because “Evernote works with nearly every computer, phone and mobile device out there.” And I use Basecamp when I need some project coordination tools along with information searching. Pick a collection / organization tool to help smooth your decision process.

Decide. The whole reason for using these tools it to make a decision. The searches may not be perfect and you may feel there is something else out there that can help. But time is limited and sometimes you just have to roll with what you have.

Keep in mind that your approach and style will evolve as you discover new ways to find information and as the tools themselves change.

~ guest blog post by John Blue, Truffle Media.

John Blue, as Chief of Community Creation for Truffle Media Networks, works to engage agricultural focused audiences through marketing, technology, and in person interactions.

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