Something has been bothering me about data products. It’s the point at which the consumer of a data product immediately switches to also being a producer. We talk a lot about the binary roles of either consumer or producer when, in reality, the vast majority of people are both at the same time. I know data product and data mesh purists may argue that data products are more formal and it should not be possible for someone to easily create a derivative set of data from original sources ...

We believe data is a critical corporate asset, right? Of course, but you would expect that, after all, we are the data people. We also see a lot of business leaders’ heads nod when the cliches ‘data is the new oil’ or ‘data is a core corporate asset’ are used. I want to test this, almost reflexive, response by drilling down and examining what that means compared to other corporate assets.

Something interesting has been happening to me over the last few months that I’ve not experienced in a while. Smart and experienced CIOs and their data leaders have been asking me for input regarding how to sell the value of a data program. The question is a clear sign of the economic times where every dollar is being heavily scrutinized. While it’s about as fun as going to the dental hygienist, overall, I think it’s refreshing and healthy to sharpen up our vision, value propositions ...