Turning Data Into Decisions Without Losing Objectivity featuring BP PMO Director Achilles Young

Every company says they’re data-driven now. The real question is whether they actually know how to use the data they have. In this episode, Achilles Young, BP PMO Director at Medtronic, talks about one of the biggest challenges large organizations face: turning data into meaningful action without falling into the trap of confirmation bias.

As Achilles explains, the issue usually isn’t access to information. Most companies already have dashboards, metrics, and reporting systems everywhere. The problem is that people often go into the data already believing they know the answer. Instead of exploring what the data is saying, they search for validation.

And that can create dangerous blind spots.

One of the more interesting points in the discussion is how organizations react emotionally to data depending on what color it shows up as. Green metrics often get ignored. Red metrics create panic. But neither response is necessarily productive unless teams are trained to slow down, evaluate context, and understand what the data is actually telling them.
Achilles also breaks the conversation into two sides: technical and business.

On the technical side, he emphasizes the importance of letting the data guide the investigation. Whether it’s tensile testing, process validation, or operational metrics, the goal shouldn’t be proving yourself right. The goal should be understanding what’s really happening.

On the business side, he points out a mistake many organizations make: involving financial partners too late in the process. When finance teams aren’t brought into initiatives early, expectations become disconnected from operational reality. But when they’re part of the journey from the beginning, organizations make better decisions together.

At its core, the conversation is really about maturity. Data alone doesn’t make an organization smarter. How people utilize it does.

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