In a captivating discussion, Abhi Sivasailam, a seasoned Growth & Analytics leader with experience at Flexport and Honeybook, explores the dynamics of modern data teams. He advocates for producer-defined models over consumer-led approaches, emphasizing collaboration to enhance data quality. Abhi highlights the importance of domain-driven design and aligning analytics with engineering to streamline processes. He also shares insights on eliminating arbitrary uniqueness in analytics engineering and the evolving landscape of the modern data stack.
Effective data contract adoption hinges on collaborative relationships between data producers and consumers to improve communication and manage expectations.
Integrating roles like product analysts and analytics engineers into the data development process ensures data considerations are aligned with product functionalities from the outset.
Deep dives
The Socio-Technical Nature of Data Contracts
Data contracts are considered essential for maintaining data quality and reliability, but they present significant socio-technical challenges. It's noted that while technical implementations of data contracts can vary widely, the underlying socio-technical processes are often overlooked. Successful data contract adoption relies heavily on collaboration between data producers and consumers rather than purely focusing on technical solutions. Acknowledging this socio aspect ensures that changes in data contracts are effectively communicated and managed throughout the organization.
The Role of Product Analysts and Analytics Engineers
The integration of roles like product analysts and analytics engineers into the data development process is crucial for successful data management. The product analyst works with the Product Requirements Document (PRD) to document the impacts on data resulting from new features, creating an Analytics Requirements Document (ARD) that outlines the specific business questions and data implications. Meanwhile, the analytics engineer plays a key role in developing a Data Design Document (DDD), outlining how data will be structured to support new features. This collaborative approach ensures that data considerations are baked into product development from the outset.
Producer vs. Consumer Defined Contracts
The podcast emphasizes the importance of producer-defined contracts over consumer-defined contracts to manage data expectations effectively. Relying solely on consumer-defined contracts can lead to complications, as consumer demands may not align with the realities of engineering resources and capabilities. Instead, a producer-defined contract model is advocated, where producers propose contracts based on consumer feedback but retain control over the implementation. This approach facilitates clearer communication in defining data models and expectations, incorporating stakeholder input without overwhelming engineers with conflicting requests.
The Future of Data Contracts and Standardization
Looking ahead, the discussion explores the potential of establishing business model-wide data contracts to streamline processes across SaaS companies. By creating standardized metrics and entities for various business models, organizations can reduce arbitrary uniqueness and free up resources for more innovative analytical endeavors. This standardization can be reinforced by the emergence of semantic layers, which aim to create a common understanding across different applications. Ultimately, this shift could lead to a more efficient data ecosystem, where companies can leverage shared contracts to ensure consistency and interoperability in their data operations.
A discussion with Abhi Sivasailam – a Growth & Analytics leader (Flexport, Hustle, Keap, Honeybook) – on "The Modern Data Team" shortly before his talk at dbt Labs' Coalesce conference in New Orleans. Abhi dives into real world data leadership and engineering management topics such as applying Domain-driven design on data teams, producer-defined models (plus why he thinks they're better than consumer-led), and adhering to SLAs across the business. Abhi also provides a future-facing view of the data industry: eliminating arbitrary uniqueness in analytics engineering. Can we all align on common data models? Is this what 'modern data teams' will look like? Tune in to learn more!
About Abhi Sivasailam:
Abhi Sivasailam is a Growth & Analytics leader who previously led those functions at Flexport, Hustle, Keap, and Honeybook. He currently invests in and advises companies on their data strategies and coaches operators. Follow Abhi on Twitter for more insights.
What's New In Data is a data thought leadership series hosted by John Kutay who leads data and products at Striim. What's New In Data hosts industry practitioners to discuss latest trends, common patterns for real world data patterns, and analytics success stories.
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