The cost of waiting for perfect data
Holding a decision until the data is flawless usually costs more than deciding on data that’s merely good enough.
There’s a seductive reason to delay any decision: the data isn’t quite complete. One more week of collection, one more cleanup pass, and then we’ll know for sure. But perfect data is a moving target, and waiting has a cost that rarely gets counted.
Decisions have a clock
While you wait for certainty, the opportunity ages. The decision that was valuable in January is worth less in March. Often the cost of deciding a bit wrong is far smaller than the cost of deciding too late, but only the first cost is visible.
Good enough to act
The useful question isn’t 'is this data perfect?' but 'is it good enough to make this decision better than a guess?' Usually it is, well before it’s perfect. Decide, watch what happens, and adjust, that loop beats waiting for data that never fully arrives.
Perfect data arrives the day after you needed the decision. Act on good enough and correct as you learn.