128 - Data Products for Dummies and The Importance of Data Product Management with Vishal Singh of Starburst
Oct 17, 2023
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Vishal Singh, Head of Data Products at Starburst and co-author of Data Products for Dummies, discusses the importance of defining data products and shares his definition. He explains tactics for gathering feedback, the challenges of user feedback during iteration, and the danger of sunk cost bias. Vishal also describes the role of a Data Product Manager and highlights the value of self-service usability and good design for data products.
Data product managers collect requirements, understand problem statements, and work with data engineering and science teams to align the product with user needs.
Continuous validation and feedback collection from end users is crucial to ensure data products provide value and address their needs.
Design plays a significant role in data product development, both at the platform level and within individual products, aiming for consistency and user-friendly experiences.
Deep dives
Data Product Manager's Role in Creating Data Products
The role of a data product manager is crucial in creating data products. They are responsible for collecting requirements from stakeholders, understanding the problem statement, and identifying the persona and use cases for the data product. They work closely with the data engineering and data science teams to ensure that the data product is aligned with the needs of the end users. Additionally, data product managers consider factors such as scalability, SLA requirements, and infrastructure support when designing the data product.
Continuous Validation and Feedback Collection
Continuous validation and feedback collection are essential in the development of data products. Data product managers engage in ongoing validation with end users to ensure that the product is on the right track and addresses their needs. They collect feedback through various channels, such as comments, support tickets, and user forums. This feedback helps them understand user frustrations, requirements, and use cases. By incorporating user feedback, data product managers can make necessary improvements and ensure that the data product continues to provide value to the users.
The Importance of Design in Data Product Development
Design plays a significant role in data product development, both at the platform level and within individual data products. At the platform level, designers focus on creating a cohesive and consistent user experience for all data products within the ecosystem. This ensures ease of use, discoverability, and familiarity for users across different domains and use cases. Within individual data products, data product managers work with designers to implement design patterns and templates that adhere to the overall platform design. The goal is to create a standardized and user-friendly experience for data product consumers. Designers also contribute to the self-service component, allowing users to easily search for and explore different data products.
The role of the data product manager in driving requirements
The data product manager (DPM) plays a crucial role in communication between the sales team, consumers, and the data scientists/engineers. The DPM collects and filters requirements from the sales team to ensure that the data scientists can develop the right models. The DPM is involved in technical conversations and collaborates with data scientists and the sales team to ensure that the models align with sales needs. The involvement of the DPM throughout the implementation process is essential for understanding iterative requirements and positioning, selling, and marketing the data product.
The importance of self-service usability and design in data products
Data products need to prioritize self-service usability and have good design for both the data scientists and the sales team. Data scientists require self-service capabilities to easily access and work with the data sets and models they need. Similarly, the sales team needs user-friendly interfaces to understand data products and access relevant information, such as dashboards. Ensuring consistent design patterns across data products helps eliminate unnecessary differentiation and enables non-technical users like the sales team to easily find and utilize the data sets and dashboards they need.
Today I’m joined by Vishal Singh, Head of Data Products at Starburst and co-author of the newly published e-book, Data Products for Dummies. Throughout our conversation, Vishal explains how the variations in definitions for a data product actually led to the creation of the e-book, and we discuss the differences between our two definitions. Vishal gives a detailed description of how he believes Data Product Managers should be conducting their discovery and gathering feedback from end users, and how his team evaluates whether their data products are truly successful and user-friendly.
Highlights/ Skip to:
I introduce Vishal, the Head of Data Products at Starburst and contributor of the e-book Data Products for Dummies (00:37)
Vishal describes how his customers at Starburst all had a common problem, but differing definitions of a data product, which led to the creation of his e-book (01:15)
Vishal shares his one-sentence definition of a data product (02:50)
How Vishal’s definition of a data product differs from mine, and we both expand on the possibilities between the two (05:33)
The tactics Vishal uses to useful feedback to ensure the data products he develops are valuable for end users (07:48)
Why Vishal finds it difficult to get one on one feedback from users during the iteration phase of data product development (11:07)
The danger of sunk cost bias in the iteration phase of data product development (13:10)
Vishal describes how he views the role of a DPM when it comes to doing effective initial discovery (15:27)
How Vishal structures his teams and their interactions with each other and their end users (21:34)
Vishal’s thoughts on how design affects both data scientists and end users (24:16)
How DPMs at Starburst evaluate if the data product design is user-friendly (28:45)
Vishal’s views on where Designers are valuable in the data product development process (35:00)
Vishal and I discuss the importance of ensuring your products truly solve your user’s problems (44:44)
Where you can learn more about Vishal’s upcoming events and the e-book, Data Products for Dummies (49:48)
