There’s a meaningful difference in how top-quartile portfolio companies actually use the data they have, compared to how most portfolio companies use data, and it’s less about the sophistication of the tooling and more about a specific habit around how decisions actually get made in the room. 

Most portfolio companies produce data the same way, a monthly or quarterly reporting pack, reviewed in a meeting, generally confirming or mildly adjusting a view that was already roughly formed before the data arrived. 

The data functions primarily as validation of an existing narrative rather than as an input that can genuinely change the narrative. This isn’t unique to weaker performers, it’s just the default mode most organisations fall into, because forming a view and then seeking confirmation is cognitively easier than genuinely updating a view based on new information. 

The habit that distinguishes top-quartile companies is a specific discipline around actively looking for data that contradicts the current view, rather than data that confirms it, and building this into the reporting rhythm explicitly rather than leaving it to individual initiative. 

Practically, this often looks like a standing agenda item in management or board meetings specifically dedicated to “what in this data surprised us or contradicts what we expected,” rather than simply walking through the metrics in the order they appear on the dashboard. 

This small structural change shifts the function of data from confirming decisions already made to genuinely informing decisions that haven’t been made yet. 

The other consistent habit is speed between a data signal appearing and a decision being made in response to it. 

Top-quartile companies tend to have shorter gaps between “we noticed this in the data” and “we changed something because of it,” not because their data is faster to produce, but because the organisational habit of actually acting on data, rather than discussing it and moving on, is stronger. 

Building that specific habit, actively looking for disconfirming signals and acting quickly once found, matters more than any dashboard upgrade in getting a portfolio company closer to how top-quartile companies actually operate.