My data hot take is that the most data driven companies run their analyses in Excel in the beginning, the modern data stack be damned, while companies who start out with a modern stack tend to have over-engineered data departments serving execs who prefer to go with their gut.
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This is totally not backed by anything more than idle speculation, extrapolating from a very small sample size.
But … if the company is seeded with really good metrics-driven operational types, they tend to start out with Excel? Because they can’t wait for data infra?
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“Oh yeah, we figured out that these good outcomes are driven by these five leading indicators, so we have Joe in finance update them manually for us every week. Took us awhile to get there, though.”
“You have who do what how?!”
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Arguably you have a very small window in time where this is true (poor Joe!), but I now think it bodes well if you have some process control or growth model running in a spreadsheet … before you build out all your data infra.