The Quiet Politics of Data

Every dashboard is a negotiation. Every filter is a flag.

Here's a truth no one puts on the Jira ticket:

Every dashboard is a turf war.

The filters? Power plays.

The fields shown? Political gestures.

The ownership? Always contested.

Data isn't neutral. It's narrative.

And every line in that SQL query reflects a choice...what to show, what to hide, what to fudge just enough to keep things "aligned."

So when someone says, "Can we just add one more field?", what they mean is, "Can we shift the story a little?"

If you don't understand the politics, you'll get blindsided by them.

If you don't care about the politics, you'll get ignored.

And if you try to play without owning the politics, you'll get used.

Your job is to listen for what's not said.

To see the move behind the metric.

To shape the truth without selling your soul.