Thanks for being here!
Announcements:
I’ll be at NAFIS Tuesday May 16th.
I’ll be at Maiden Century’s Data Partner Summit Tuesday May 16th.
In NY all week the week of May 15th. Happy to connect if you are in town.
We have a new daily data product that offers end-of-day account balances across various types of accounts (savings, checking, personal, business, etc). Anonymous small regional & community banks. No PII. Very granular.
Theme that emerged in this week’s email is … data is an asset that should be considered when valuing any company.
News Articles
Podcasts
Cool Charts
Final Thoughts (Personal Brand)
#1 – Max Bowie from Waters Technology published Alt data’s growing pains: Integration and aggregation challenges stall wider adoption (paywall). May 2023.
My Take: Good article about the state of alternative data. Has me recalling the below Data Score chart I highlighted in Alt Data Weekly #129. The industry is certainly experiencing growing pains. We are seeing a shake out as described in Max’s article. There are lots of reason the industry is seeing fits & starts. Sometimes working with data is just too tough and buyers get frustrated. Sometimes the value of the data is simply not there. This can be a function of data owner’s valuation expectations being too lofty, or perhaps it is just the data vendor’s realization that delivering a clean, consistent, complete data product is difficult. The good news is tools to engage with data are improving. Data discovery is maturing. Use cases are being proven. People that do this well are seeing the benefit. Zoom out, it looks pretty darn good.
#2 – Data Diligence’s Chelsea Wilkinson published Pricing. Pricing. Pricing. May 2023.
My Take: How to take into account the value of your data? During any type of transaction where a value is placed on your company, data assets MUST be a part of that valuation process today
#3 – Sven Balnojan published Hello Product Data Team, Goodbye Ad-Hoc Work. May 2023.
My Take: This is a good step-by-step description of moving from a service team to a product team. Most data teams are like firemen … doing a lot of ad-hoc work and figuring out why something isn’t working. The dream is to create magical data products that business users can’t live without. Basically, moving from a service team to a product team. This requires a lot of communication. A lot of customer feedback. And a willingness to do things differently.
#4 – Michael Segner & Peter Milligan published Monte Carlo’s The Annual State of Data Quality Survey. May 2023.
My Take: Headline from this year’s survey was that data downtime nearly double y/y. With 74% of reported issues being identified by the business user (not a good feeling). See below for some of the charts.
BONUS: FISD developed Alternative Data Identification Factors. March 2023. “FISD has developed the following risk-based factors to assist financial services firms in identifying Alternative Data and, if necessary, subject such information to further due diligence review.”
BONUS 2: Via Michael Kallo, Omar Sultan Al Olama , The Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence, Digital Economy and Remote Work Applications at Government of the UAE, published this 119-page 100 Practical Applications and Use Cases of Generative AI. April 2023. I remain fascinated by the real-world changes coming our way. I particularly liked slides 93+ that introduce new platforms, most of which I had never heard of prior.
BONUS 3: Christian Branbergen published How Startups and Scaleups Can Leverage Web Data for Success. May 2023. “the ability to use web data to gain insights into how customers are discussing products, services, or brands within a particular market by monitoring conversations and reviews happening online.”
What else I am reading:
Eagle Alpha announces Release of Surveyor - The Leading Compliance Workflow Product for Data Vendor Monitoring and Communication Capture. April 2023.
Damian Siemieniak published Building dbt CI/CD at scale. April 2023.
#1 – Kyle Winterbottom of the Driven By Data podcast published Harnessing Data and Analytics to Help People Live a More Intelligent Financial Life™ with Farouk Ferchichi, President Data & Analytics at Envestnet Inc. May 2023.
My Take: Great to hear Farouk’s perspective on the data space. Of most interest to me was the focus on making the data easy to understand & use. Making complex things simple is a true skill! The key is to deliver data that is clean & organized in a way that it is useful for the end consumer. Over the next 3-5 years we will see consumers demanding from their FIs MUCH better information about their financial wellbeing…delivered for free. This will become table-stakes for FIs (if it isn’t already). Delivering this capability is how Envestnet helps their FI clients better serve their end customers. Consumer wants from the FI’s better information about their finances.
Highlights (51-minute run time):
Minute 01:50 – interview starts & Farouk’s background
Minute 04:30 – Envestnet background and context
Minute 07:15 – day in the life, strategy & building products (data platform) & bring to marketMinute 09:00 – what are core reasons FIs should be investing in data products for their customers?
Minute 16:00 – “financial wellness journey” & how Envestnet helps FIs better help the end consumer
Minute 21:00 – what are the solutions they are providing? What can data do for our clients?
Minute 29:10 – data products buzzword … “hyper-personalization”
Minute 33:45 – how do bigger FIs keep pace with digital nomad trends (“chasing the fintechs”)
Minute 38:00 – what stands in the way of greater adoption of these types of interconnected services?
Minute 42:30 – what role does end consumer play in this transformation? What do consumers want?
Minute 47:00 –outlook for next 3-5 years
Source 1: FISD developed Alternative Data Identification Factors. March 2023.
“FISD has developed the following risk-based factors to assist financial services firms in identifying Alternative Data and, if necessary, subject such information to further due diligence review.”
Source 2: Michael Segner & Peter Milligan published Monte Carlo’s The Annual State of Data Quality Survey. May 2023.
Data downtime nearly doubled year over year, driven by a 166% increase in time to resolution for data quality issues.
More than half of respondents reported 25% or more of revenue was subjected to data quality issues.
Source: Jill Avery & Rachel Greenwald published in HBR A New Approach to Building Your Personal Brand. May-June 2023.
This is a helpful article. The idea of a personal brand is something new to me. I am not 100% comfortable being any sort of public persona. But I recognize that “much of professional and personal success depends on persuading others to recognize your value”.
“Your brand is what people say about you when you’re not in the room.”
- Jeff Bezos
The authors lay out a 7-step process:
1- Define your purpose
write a personal value proposition, a statement with four components: the group you will target, what you hope to provide, your competitive cohort, and your distinctive capabilities.
2- Audit your personal brand equity
evaluate whether your self-assessment lines up with your desired brand identity
3- Construct your personal narrative
your personal value proposition becomes more memorable, resonant, accessible, and persuasive when you convey it with stories.
4- Embody your brand
be aware of the messages you’re sending.
5- Communicate your brand story
the goal is to increase discoverability, awareness, and understanding with your audiences.
6- Socialize your brand
find allies among gatekeepers, influencers, promoters.
7- Reevaluate and adjust your brand
“reengage your truth tellers” … or find those people that will give you honest feedback.