Driving Data-Driven Culture: Advice From Data Leaders at Freshworks, Samsara, and others

Data leaders are increasingly realizing that technology alone is no longer enough. The real driver of success lies in data-driven teams whose shared values, practices, and beliefs enable organizations to function cohesively and adapt to change.

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By building a strong team culture that thrives on data accessibility, innovation, collaboration, and customer-centricity, data leaders can drive team satisfaction and build long-term business success.

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See how data leaders at Freshworks, MoonPay, Samsara, and Malt have built a team culture that powers data-driven business success.

The importance of a data-driven culture

A data-driven culture ensures that every individual in an organization leverages data to make informed decisions. It is a culture built on accessibility, trust, and collaboration, empowering teams to achieve business objectives with clarity and precision.

#1 Empowering employees to act independently

When data is accessible across all functions and hierarchies, it empowers employees to act independently and make informed decisions. 

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The director of data at MoonPay, a multinational fin-tech offering a fast and simple way to buy and sell cryptocurrencies, shares that her team ensures easy data access across the company.

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“I head a small data team of 15 people including data analysts, engineers, data scientists, ML engineers, and MLOps. We work closely with all teams to ensure they have the data infrastructure and tech stack they need to achieve their goals.”

Emily Loh, Director of Data, MoonPay
MoonPay’s blueprint for cracking self-serve analytics 

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MoonPay implements self-service analytics tools that democratize data access, allowing employees to extract insights without relying heavily on data teams, leading to quicker decisions and fostering a sense of ownership across departments.

#2 Building a strong foundation with trust

Trust is the glue that holds a data-driven culture together. Without it, employees may resist change, hesitate to adopt new tools or make decisions based on personal biases rather than data insights. 

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Organizations that prioritize trust through transparent practices, accessible data, and supportive leadership can transform their culture into one that thrives on data-driven innovation and success.

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Pleo, Europe's leading spend management platform, has successfully created a culture of trust by implementing transparent data practices. They involve all stakeholders in understanding how data is collected, analyzed, and applied, creating an environment of shared responsibility.

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“Our product is based on trusting employees and being transparent. In terms of culture, we mirror the product we sell. That's the fundamental cultural aspect of Pleo. We inculcate trust and collaboration into everything we do to simplify processes for ourselves and our customers.”

Sriram Sampath, Head of Data Analytics, Pleo
Pleo's proactive data strategy for customer success

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Core elements of a data-driven culture

A data-driven culture isn't just about leveraging tools or systems; it’s about instilling a mindset across teams where decisions are backed by insights, collaboration is seamless, and innovation thrives. Innovation, collaboration, and customer-centricity form the foundation of this culture, ensuring that data becomes the force that empowers teams to achieve business goals.

#1 Innovation: Harnessing data for creative solutions

Innovation thrives in environments where teams feel encouraged to experiment and take risks. Samsara got this right. Its culture blends big vision with grounded teamwork, which drives employee growth and company success. 

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“The culture of innovation is strong within our team. What's unique to the data team is our love for experimentation and trying out different things. Our toolkit of what's possible feels limitless, and we're constantly thinking of new ways we can connect the dots for the marketing or sales teams and help everyone in the organization make sense of their data.”

Kiriti Manne, Head of Strategy & Data, Samsara
How Samsara’s Attribution Model Turns Data into Gold

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#2 Collaboration: Breaking silos

At Samsara, decentralization is the cornerstone of collaboration. Teams operate independently to maintain agility but come together to align on company goals. This balance between autonomy and accountability ensures that innovation flourishes and the organization’s objectives are met.

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“We try to be as centralized or decentralized as needed. For data sources that have use cases across the company, not just my team, our central IT team is responsible for the standardization, pipelining, and governance, so that everyone has access to the same quality data.”

Kiriti Manne, Head of Strategy & Data, Samsara
How Samsara’s Attribution Model Turns Data into Gold

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Similarly, Freshworks is breaking down data silos by fostering a collaborative team environment rooted in its unique cultural philosophy of "Kutumbua”. This concept, inspired by the Indian idea of family, emphasizes unity, shared purpose, and mutual support across the organization. 

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“We have truly embraced our cultural philosophy of Kutumbua. Within the data team, we treat our employees as part of extended family and follow a culture of agility and accountability. We prioritize delivering immediate value at the time of decision-making without getting caught up in the complexities of the board.”

Sachin Mishra, Senior Director of Data Science and AI, Freshworks
Leveraging AI to make data accessible across Freshworks

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When asked about the most notable data win at Freshworks, Sachin said that some meaningful achievements include identifying the right customers at the right time, converting trial customers to paying customers, and setting the right expectations for AI-powered features.

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Crediting this success to the collaborative efforts of the data and marketing teams, Sachin explained:

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“We worked closely with the marketing team to drive quality client conversions in the early stages. While the data team provided insights on the ideal customer cohort for targeted discussions, the go-to-market teams focused on engaging these unique ICPs to achieve more meaningful conversions. This would not be possible had we been working in siloes.”

Sachin Mishra, Senior Director of Data Science and AI, Freshworks
Leveraging AI to make data accessible across Freshworks

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#3 Customer-centricity: Aligning data strategies with consumer needs

Customer-centricity ensures that data strategies are not just about analysis but are actionable, customer-focused, and embedded in team culture, making data an integral part of every decision.

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Samsara’s focus on customer needs has created value for the company. Their tools help asset-heavy industries minimize downtime and improve supply chain efficiency. This approach ensures that their data initiatives resonate with their customers’ most pressing challenges.

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“Always think of the customers first. For my team, our direct customers are our stakeholders in marketing and sales. So we're constantly thinking about what they care about, what problems they are facing, and how we can help them solve these problems.”

Kiriti Manne, Head of Strategy & Data, Samsara
How Samsara’s Attribution Model Turns Data into Gold

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Mishra of Freshworks emphasizes that a truly impactful data strategy prioritizes enhancing the customer journey. By analyzing customer behavior and preferences, Freshworks continuously refines its AI tools to deliver personalized and engaging experiences for its customers. 

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“We had 60,000 customers in beta trials for our AI solutions — we put our customers first, optimized for value, and thought from their perspective to improve the product. This customer-centric approach helped us identify customers who were ready to pay for our solutions”

Sachin Mishra, Senior Director of Data Science and AI, Freshworks
Leveraging AI to make data accessible across Freshworks

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Challenges of driving data culture and how data leaders are overcoming them

Even with a strong vision, organizations face significant hurdles in embedding data into their culture. However, the data leaders at Malt and Samsara have developed strategies to address these challenges head-on.

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#1 Complexity in measuring ROI

One of the most persistent challenges is measuring the return on investment (ROI) of data initiatives. The value of these efforts often extends beyond immediate financial gains, encompassing qualitative improvements such as employee satisfaction or enhanced customer experiences.

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Malt tackles this challenge through a combination of qualitative and quantitative approaches. 

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“Malt incorporates A/B testing to test the impact of data against traditional methods. Doing this helps us capture the nuanced benefits of data initiatives.”

Anaïs Ghelfi, Head of Data Platform, Malt
Malt’s data ROI framework to prove your data team’s worth in big, bold numbers 

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Similarly, Samsara employs advanced attribution models to link every data initiative to a specific outcome. Whether it’s revenue growth, customer retention, or operational efficiency, these models provide clarity on how data efforts contribute to organizational success.

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“One thing that I'm proud of is our attribution model. You need to understand what's working and what's not, so you can fine-tune the top of the funnel engine. And attribution is how we do that. Using attribution models, we make capital allocation decisions and ingest all touch points across all channels and campaigns with our customers.”

Kiriti Manne, Head of Strategy & Data, Samsara
How Samsara’s Attribution Model Turns Data into Gold

#2 Overcoming cultural resistance

When introducing new tools or data-driven processes, employees may feel overwhelmed by the steep learning curve or skeptical about the tangible benefits these initiatives promise. Left unaddressed, these concerns can significantly hinder the adoption of a data-driven culture, leading to missed opportunities for innovation and growth. 

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Overcoming this resistance requires thoughtful communication, hands-on training, and a clear demonstration of how data can empower employees rather than complicate their work.

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Malt, Europe’s top freelance consulting marketplace, has ingrained accessibility into its core operations to ensure that all teams become truly data-first. Through comprehensive training programs and intuitive tools, Malt ensures every team member — regardless of technical expertise — feels confident navigating and interpreting data.

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“Malt’s culture revolves around tech, innovation, and empowerment. We make data accessible and relatable, even branding internal tools to better connect with non-technical teams. The goal? Make data solutions transparent and usable for everyone, not just the experts.”

Anais Ghelfi, Head of Data Platform at MaltMalt’s data ROI framework to prove your data team’s worth in big, bold numbers

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Malt’s approach highlights the importance of aligning technological transformations with human-centric strategies to address cultural resistance and drive meaningful cultural shifts.

How data leaders are driving team culture

The role of data leaders extends far beyond technical expertise. Leaders play a pivotal role in embedding data into team culture and serve as cultural architects, fostering environments where experimentation is encouraged, feedback is valued, and failures are treated as growth opportunities.

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At Pleo, leadership buy-in is crucial in fostering a data-driven team culture.

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“Pleo’s culture revolves around getting buy-in from leadership; without that, you can have all the data you want, but it won't translate into action. Our leaders understand the value of building trusted and high-quality foundational data models so they can trust the data in their outcomes. They have made major investments in adding more analytics engineers to our team to ensure we generate trustworthy results, I'm proud of the leadership.”

Sriram Sampath, Head of Data Analytics, Pleo
Pleo's proactive data strategy for customer success

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Data leaders drive data-driven culture

Building a data-driven culture is a journey that requires both strategic foresight and a commitment to empowering people. As demonstrated by the success stories from Freshworks, Samsara, MoonPay, and Malt, true transformation comes from making data accessible, fostering trust, and aligning insights with customer needs. 

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Leaders play a pivotal role in driving data teams. By addressing common challenges such as cultural resistance and ROI measurement, they unlock the full potential of data for innovation, efficiency, and growth. Organizations that embrace these principles will not only navigate today’s complexities but also position themselves for long-term success in an increasingly data-powered world.

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