For the final article in my Data Management series, I wanted to create something simple that senior leaders could use to assess where they stand regarding their department's data maturity.

And because I’ve always liked the Kardashev scale, I thought why not apply a similar idea to legal and compliance?

The idea

You answer a simple question:

“What is your team’s data strategy for the next 12 months?”

Based on the 'mindset' of your answer, you can position your team across five levels of data maturity.

Each level reflects a shift across four dimensions:

• Visibility: from no awareness to full transparency
• Governance: from chaos to discipline
• Integration: from silos to common data model
• Strategy: from reactive to proactive use of data

The five types:

• Data Blind: Data is seen as an IT problem. No visibility, ownership, or strategy.
• Data Scattered: Data exists, but is fragmented across emails, folders, spreadsheets, and people’s heads. Still no strategy.
• Data Structured: Information is recorded, but lacks coherence and is difficult to combine.
• Data Governed: Leadership is engaged and investing in capability, but manual workarounds still dominate, and the department still faces issues related to data.
• Data Strategic: Data is treated as a core capability and business asset. Governance, skills, and culture are aligned with the company's strategy.

Why this matters

Most legal and compliance functions operate between types 2 and 3. They have data, but lack the discipline needed to use it effectively, with no real governance nor strategy. As a consequence their data management is relatively poor.

If you want to share that scale, please download the full scale (free, no registration required).