MIT CDOIQ Conference Trip Report

I attended the MIT CDOIQ conference for the first time. It was a great conference and I’m excited to come back next year. The main takeaways I had:?

1. Discussions were centered about the social aspect: making sure the CDO is providing direct business value
2. Data mesh was a hot topic with presentations showcase real journeys and demystifying, and an audience eager to learn
3. Very little to no discussion on technology and “old school” governance, protection, risk.?

Social?

• The keynote on day 1 was a discussion between Matthew Graviss CDO of Dept of State and David Spirk former CDO of Dept of Defense. They highlighted that we need more curiosity and it’s all about a cultural change. It’s not just about reporting numbers but giving a story.?
• What are the worries? Leadership turnover thus the need to re-explain. Also, knowledge transfer because people leave an organization?
• When data people are invited to non-tech meetings is a sign of value and path to success.?
• “Get data talent to where policy is being made” - Matthew Graviss
• “Build your replacement. Make sure they are better than you” David Spirk?
• The CDO panel with Ajai Sehgal Mayo Clinic CDAO, Grace Lee Scotiabank CDAO, Craig Brabec Bestbuy CDAO and DeWayne Griffin State Farm CDO was another big highlight, moderated by Randy Bean ! I shared my takeaways in a previous post .??
• Honestly it’s surprising that it’s taken so much time for the focus to be about business value instead of technology. My impression is that Data office spun off from IT, where the culture there is technology.?
• It was great to learn about how LSEG is building a data driven culture. Great to meet Diane E. and Terrence Hedin
• “We are never done with data. Just like we are never done with customer satisfaction” brilliant quote from Simone Steel CITP FBCS . So glad that by pure luck I sat next to her on the bus and had an awesome conversation.?
• I also gave a talk on how to be agile in a data mesh world. I presented our Data Products ABC framework and also discussed embracing complexity and that friction is OK. And to do this, we need to talk to people. I heard the same theme in other talks and hallway conversations. I saw the first part of Juan Tello ’s talk, Deloitte CDO, and he was bringing this up too.?
• I’m always in awe to learn from the resilience of 100+ year old companies. Asif Mahammad Syed and Louis DiModugno from HSB have a detailed talk about their transformation. They call it the Jet Engine value chain: Acquisition, Integration, Distribution, Analytics.?
• Mohammed Aaser argued that only 3% of the workforce are in data and we are neglecting the 97%. Inspired by successful athletes, he made the analogy that we should have data athletes, who are the ones that spend time understanding the business and being curious. I heard other folks saying “data athletes” the next day.?

Data Mesh?

• What is truly a Data Product? If you make the definition too broad, then everything is a data product and it defeats the purpose. This is the critical question that Marco Vernocchi EY Global CDO was asking everyone. There is no clear cut consistent answer for what is a data product. That’s fine. We will get there as a community. I’m very happy to have met Marco and enjoy several hallway discussions on this topic. I believe there is a spectrum that needs to be defined. I also believe that our Data Product ABC framework contributes to the answer but the community is hungry for more.?
• The Data Products ABC was well received. I’m surprised that I didn’t receive feedback about characteristics that are missing. Everyone I spoke to agreed with what I presented.?
• Everyone agrees that the individual pillars of data mesh isn’t new: we’ve been doing this for a long time. Formalizing this into a whole is the value.?
• Great to learn about journeys of different companies. Even though there was healthy skepticism in the audience, they were eager to learn. The panel with Mark Clare , Dr. Sebastian Klapdor , Nachiket Mehta was another highlight. Adrian Estala was a great moderator.?
• At Vista they define Value Pools. 25 teams have developed 120 data products for 5 domains.?
• Single Threaded Ownership: Understand end to end. I’ve always called this the iron thread.
• Forecast/Estimating/Measuring value is hard and it will be a journey.?
• Create a domain map of your organization, just like a city map.?
• “Don’t build a Minimum viable product. Build a MLP: Minimum Loveable Product'' - Sebastian Klapdor. LOVE THIS!!
• Each team has a Data Product Manager. One team structure is to have a Data Analyst, Domain Expert, Data Engineer, and possibly a data scientist.?
• At Wayfair, they have an Atomic Team: Data product manager, architect, Data engineer, software engineer and UX designer. The data analyst/scientist are optional. 1 domain can have multiple atomic teams.?
• What is the career path to a Data Product Manager? Open question!

Final Thoughts?

• Not surprising this was mainly a US audience. There will be conferences in EU, LATAM.?
• I’m eager to learn more about the data landscape in Latin America because I don’t hear much from my standpoint. Glad to have met Paula Runciman ?
• It’s always very cool to meet with fans of our Catalog and Cocktails podcast. Former guests Sanjeev Mohan Mohammed Aaser Christopher Bergh and listeners Robin Rappaport Wendy Zhang !?
• This was an awesome networking event! Reconnected with Tony Cyriac , finally met in person Anthony Algmin Anoop Lalla and made new friends Alex Vayner Christine Legner and Alice Vaskova (hosts of CDOIQ EU in sept), Dan Yokum , Malcolm Hawker .
• Glad I was able to have scientific discussions with Felix Naumann ! We need more academics to come to industry conferences to help bridge the gap of theory and practice!?

This was such an excellent event! I can't wait to go back next year.