XBRL made some major “pivots” at the XBRL US Conference in Austin last week.

What do I mean by pivot?

“Eric Ries, the creator of the ‘Lean Startup’ methodology, reminds us that pivots imply keeping one foot firmly in place as you shift the other in a new direction. In this way, new ventures process what they have already learned from past success and failure and apply these insights in new areas.”

It is the rapid evolution of a business idea based on market feedback and applied learning. That is exactly what I experienced in Austin.

Let me explain. 

Pivot # 1 – The move from “getting the data in” to “getting the data right and using it” The SEC’s Susan Yount (Office of Interactive Disclosure) was on-hand to report that over 30 million financial facts have been reported from more than 10,000 public companies. Lots of work needs to be done to get it right but the data is in and lots of new tools are emerging on how to get and analyze the data. 

Pivot # 2 – The standard setters are adopting and using XBRL in some real productive and exciting ways. Terri Polley, CEO of the Financial Accounting Foundation (FAF) was the chair of the conference. Does anyone else find that interstesting? The FASB has taken over the US GAAP taxonomy and is actively maintaining and updating it.