The Dirty Data Conundrum: #24 with Susan Walsh

Happy to announce the 24th episode of The Only Constant out today with Classification Guru Susan Walsh . Susan is a well known speaker on all the issues related to dirty data of all forms and I am glad she wanted to join me to discuss what data quality and governance means in an age of rapid technological innovation and - of course - AI.

Read more about Susan at the bottom of this newsletter.

As always, I am very happy that we once again managed to make an episode that explores more than it explains ??

Listen to the episode here:

Apple: The Only Constant on Apple Podcasts

Spotify: The Only Constant | Podcast on Spotify

Google: The Only Constant (google.com)

Spreaker: The Only Constant (spreaker.com)

What made this episode special to me?:

This is baseline stuff: if you do not know what good data looks like, how can you evaluate any data output from any new system, let alone AI? And if your data is in a bad shape, how much value should you expect to get from it? Susan has made a career out of being the number one enemy of dirty data and knows a thing or two about what it means when data quality inhibits progress.

On top, she has a great energy and wit and we had a lot of fun recording the episode. Susan maintains a certain flair across her speaking engagements and this episode is no exception.

My key post-recording deliberations are:

• That first comment about how every company in the world has a data issue. To me, that must mean that data issues are a bi-product of progress, of industry, and perhaps even of an ambition to do more. More data means more possibilities to drive more value with data, hence the influx of data must remain steady - and sometimes that also means dirty.
• Master data is not always company wide master data. Master data setups must always reflect the complexities of the business functions the data is trying to enhance.
• Maintaining strict data discipline should be higher on the list of priorities for companies - and I know, this has been said like forever. Doesn't make it less true.

But that is only a small part of why I liked this episode - Listen in and let me know in the comments what you think of the 24th episode of The Only Constant!

About Susan Walsh :

Susan Walsh is The Classification Guru. She has been cleaning, classifying and fixing dirty data for over a decade and set up The Classification Guru Ltd 2017 to solve dirty data problems in the procurement world.

As well as an entrepreneur, Susan is an industry thought leader, an influencer and a global speaker. She has been listed in the DataIQ100 for the last two years, as well as winning DataIQ Data Champion 2022 and 2023. She’s also a Key Influencer for the Accounts Payable Association, promoting the benefits of clean data across many industries.

She’s a published author of Between the Spreadsheets: Classifying and Fixing Dirty Data and has her own online course: Fixing Dirty Data – The Basics of Data Cleaning. In addition to this, Susan also has a TEDx Talk Say NO to NO about resilience, which has amassed 3k views and counting.

Susan has created the data COAT framework, which has helped companies across the globe save time and money thanks to seeing the value in cleaning their ‘dirty data’.

She has attended well over a hundred events in the data and procurement space, whether that be as a speaker, an exhibitor, or as an influencer, and is still active in tackling your dirty data!