Sometimes, the difference between evidence based and data driven decision making gets mixed up. Evidence based decision making looks at the data, but considers it against experience and the actual goings on of a business and is a much more useful way of going about things

An article we found by Panalysis puts it nicely and offers a few differences:

“The adjective ‘data driven’ has become very popular in marketing circles in past years. A quick search in Wikipedia returns its definition as:

The adjective data-driven means that progress in an activity is compelled by data, rather than by intuition or personal experience. It is often labeled as business jargon for what scientists call evidence-based decision making.

Whilst this statement takes a less than flattering poke at those who use the phrase data driven, in my opinion the differences run far deeper.

The Data Made Me Do It

Data driven implies that the data is in control.

Whilst surprising insights and efficiencies can and do emerge when data analysis techniques are used, ultimately humans need to make decisions based on the analysis of the data. Data is a means to an end and not the end itself.

Data driven also implies that we inhabit a deterministic universe. Laplace’s Demon has many well known arguments against a deterministic universe. The world and how human beings interact with it is simply way too complicated and far too erratic for predictions to be made purely on observed past data.”

Check out the rest of the article here to read about why we take this approach.