The analyst in me knows that not everyone enjoys quantitative reasoning or analysis. In fact, it’s something many of us graduate from (in school, profession, etc) and hope to leave behind forever. But I can’t stress the importance of keeping everything data-driven, even potentially to a fault, to ensure credibility and substantiate a claim.

When you are working on a project, trying to negotiate a partnership, or even forming an interest group, taking a data-driven approach is a sure way to success. When I think about my work re-starting the Super Women at Twitter org from the ground up, I attribute the success to identifying valuable metrics and putting hard numbers behind the claims.

Data doesn’t have to be scary or even large, but it should be accurate and well-thought out. The most successful companies that learn how to scale and grow a business also know how to identify metrics early, measure them consistently and accurately, and use those data points to their advantages. The difference between a small, fledgling company that doesn’t understand how to pitch or scale itself and one that does is simply a metric.

Start small: identify one thing that values the business, org or project. Is it number of users? Time spent doing something? Added value to a business? Identifying, tracking and using this data effectively lends credibility and sets you up for success.