Thanks for being here!
Theme that emerged in this week’s email is … the importance of domain knowledge as a data practitioner.
QUOTES
“Data business partnerships are challenging–you’ll work in messier contexts with multiple people and you may feel you’ll have to do more communication work between your business team & your “home” data team. It requires a healthy “saying no” muscle to other ad-hoc work as you need to protect your time and focus for your partners.”
News Articles
Podcasts
Cool Charts
Final Thoughts (Sleeping Through a Storm)
Appendix
#1 – Anil K. Gupta, Jon Norberg, Evan Schnidman, and Kai Wu authored Harnessing Alternative Data for Competitive Advantage. November 2022.
My Take: This is a good article. Frankly, I say this because it is straightforward. The authors describe what alternative data is, how it can be useful, how to best structure a team to drive value, all while acknowledging the challenges in doing so. My thought is the next big thing in data will be the company that solves the discovery problem & combines it with the ability to get your “plain English” question answered. This is why you see the big guys (AMZN, GOOG, SNOW) pursuing marketplaces. If they can solve data discovery, it is easier to keep the customer in the ecosystem to answer the question. In the end, their customers engage with the core storage/compute services in a bigger, stickier way.
#2 – Locally Optimistic published The Data Business Partnership. August 2022.
My Take: This highlights the importance of domain knowledge. For a data practitioner to truly partner with the business unit, you need to understand the business. The article shares eight (8) “to do’s” to start a DBP (Data Business Partnership). The key to be proactive, engage, and track progress. In time the overall team will be better off.
#3 – Pedram Navid published The Eternal Suffering of Data Practitioners: Part 1. October 2022.
My Take: Think like a CEO. Act like A PM. Think strategically. As a data practitioner, when asked for data, ask “what problem are you trying to solve”. If everyone on the team can’t articulate that effectively, you’ll be spinning wheels with the data.
#4 – Steve Neat of Alation published in Computer Weekly Does data need to come from a single source of truth? November 2022.
My Take: The single source of truth is an ideal state which is no longer possible given the volume and diverse sources of data. Garbage-in = garbage-out still applies. The basic premise of the article is that there needs to be very clear & accurate meta data about the data (enter the data catalog) … everyone needs to understand what the data is, where it comes from, and what the bias is (all data has bias). Only then can you move towards trusting the data everyone is using.
BONUS: Julia Lynch of G2 published How to Find Your Perfect Data Combination Using Alternative Data. November 2022. This article is a commercial for G2, but worth a review.
BONUS 2: Andre Retterath published Data-driven VC #1: Why VC is broken and where to start fixing it. September 2022. This was article #1 of a series, Andre been publishing every week since … check out them all!
BONUS 3: Josh Zumbrun of WSJ published When It Comes to Data, Sometimes Less Is More. November 2022. “There’s an alignment between simple, fair and accurate.”
#1 – Waters Wavelength Podcast published Episode 255 WFIC and everything cloud. November 2022.
My Take: The interviewee Josephine Gallagher discussed the World Financial Information Conference (WFIC) she attended in Prague in mid-October. Most interesting to me is the common struggle of placing a value on data (typical answer is, “well…it depends”)
Highlights (13-minute run time):
Minute 01:00 – interview starts, feedback on the Prague event.
Minute 03:30 – themes Josephine noticed at the conference (delivery methods for market data; on-prem vs cloud)
Minute 05:00 – discussion of market data fees; users want value on the data from producers (well…we’ll tell you once we know how you are using the data)
Minute 07:00 – importance of meta-data
Minute 010:00 – the fun stuff about the trip to Prague
#2 – ThoughtSpot’s Cindi Howson on Best Practices for Driving Impact from Data & Analytics. November 2022.
My Take: A recap episode. Five segments, 1- Role of CDO, 2- Aligning tech & business value, 3- Culture & People Change mgmt, 4- asking the right questions, 5- Best practices.
Highlights (37-minute run time):
Minute 02:00 – Section 1 – Tom Davenport; the role of CDO
Minute 06:00 – Section 2 – Craig Rowlands of Medi Bank; conversation with stakeholders
Minute 08:30 – Section 3 – Max Chan; Aligning to business objectives
Minute 10:00 – Section 4 – Suzette Kent; importance of asking the right questions
Minute 12:30 – Section 5 – Bernard Marr; using the 80-20 rule
Minute 15:30 – Section 5 – Jim Tyo; experience with data
Minute 17:00 – Section 5 – Alberto Rey Villaverde - 3 things you need to get right to succeed with data
Minute 18:30 – Section 5 – Sully McConnell; the future is in the cloud
Minute 20:00 – Section 5 – Gustavo Canton; driving innovation, how to decide what tools to test
Minute 23:45 – Section 5 – John Osborn; Importance of culture
Minute 25:30 – Section 5 – Max Chan; bringing in outsiders
Minute 27:00 – Section 5 – Bernard Marr; exploring new technologies
Minute 27:45 – Section 5 – Dana Rollison; understanding data
Minute 29:30 – Section 5 – Scott Peck; analyst of the future
Minute 31:00 – Section 5 – Cindi Howson & friends; confidence in data skills; data literacy
Source: Hex published Don’t Tell Your Data Team’s ROI Story. August 2020.
Bottom line, when justifying your existence … you should be doing so well that others jump in to tell the boss how great you are.
It is important that “data people” add a ton of value to the business teams because you can easily get pigeon-holed as a cost center rather than an essential part of the business.
Make yourself indispensable:
“If your partners aren’t willing to go to bat for you like this, then it’s time to take a step back to rethink how you’re operating.“
“…the Data team’s work will underwhelm if it’s not actually useful for others…”
Source: I Can Sleep Through a Storm
Check out the below quick story about the importance of preparation. The corollary for me would be having done all the prep work before a big event, presentation, or sales pitch. No need to be nervous if I know the material better than anyone & can answer every question.
A farmer was looking for a farm hand. A young man came looking for a job. When the farmer When the farmer asked for his qualifications, he said, "I can sleep through a storm."The farmer was angry that instead of work this man was talking about sleeping. However he really needed help so he hired him.
A few weeks later, the farmer and his wife were awakened in the night by a violent storm. He leapt out of bed and called for his new hired hand, but the young man was sleeping soundly and couldn’t be woken up.
Frustrated and angry the farmer determined to fire the farmhand the next day. He and his wife quickly began to check things to see if all was secure. They found that the shutters of the farmhouse had been securely fastened. The farmer and his wife then inspected their property. They found that the farm tools had been placed in the storage shed, safe from the elements. He sees that the bales of wheat had been bound and wrapped in tarpaulins.
The tractor had been moved into its garage. The barn was properly locked tight. Even the animals were calm and had plenty of feed. All was well.
The farmer suddenly understood the meaning of the young man's words, "I can sleep through a storm."
The farmhand did his work ahead of time so he was prepared for any storm. So when the storm did actually break, he was not concerned or afraid. He could sleep in peace.