Data product leaders need to prioritize usability over technical features to enhance business value.
CDOs must focus on driving cultural change and fostering business-centric mindsets for optimal data usage.
Deep dives
Importance of Focusing on Design and User Experience
In the podcast, Ivan Averro Bartolomán highlights the importance of shifting the focus of data product leaders towards treating analytics and machine learning tools as evolving products designed for usability before generating business value. He emphasizes the need for design thinking and user-centered approaches to enhance data products' utility, usability, and overall value. By advocating for a community that promotes continuous learning and collaboration across various disciplines, Bartolomán stresses the significance of integrating UX, human-centered design, and software product management to drive successful data product outcomes.
Beyond Technical Skills: Importance of Cultural Change
Bartolomán discusses the critical oversight in many data science leaders and CDOs solely focusing on technical skills rather than cultivating other essential competencies crucial for extracting value from data products. He underscores the necessity for driving cultural change within organizations and transforming behaviors to optimize data usage impact. By emphasizing the need for data fluency in business areas and nurturing business knowledge within teams, Bartolomán highlights the pivotal role of instilling a business-centric mindset among data analytics leaders to drive tangible business value.
Role of Data Translators in Data Product Success
The podcast delves into the concept of 'data translators' as key stakeholders responsible for bridging the gap between technical data teams and business objectives to ensure the successful delivery of data products. Bartolomán emphasizes the need to incorporate individuals with diverse backgrounds in business, design, innovation, and project management to serve as data translators. He underscores the importance of these professionals in aligning technical efforts with overarching business goals, safeguarding project alignment and effective communication between technical teams and end-users.
Shifting Focus to Business Value and User Needs
One of the central themes discussed in the podcast is the imperative shift towards prioritizing business value and user experience in data product development. Bartolomán emphasizes that successful data products are not solely determined by technical accuracy but rather by their usability, the value they bring to users, and their seamless integration into existing workflows. By advocating for a more human-centered and user-driven approach to building data solutions, the podcast underscores the importance of aligning technical efforts with user needs and overarching business objectives.
Today I’m chatting with Iván Herrero Bartolomé, Chief Data Officer at Grupo Intercorp. Iván describes how he was prompted to write his new article in CDO Magazine, “CDOs, Let’s Get Out of Our Comfort Zone” as he recognized the importance of driving cultural change within organizations in order to optimize the use of data. Listen in to find out how Iván is leveraging the role of the analytics translator to drive this cultural shift, as well as the challenges and benefits he sees data leaders encounter as they move from tactical to strategic objectives. Iván also reveals the number one piece of advice he’d give CDOs who are struggling with adoption.
Highlights / Skip to:
Iván explains what prompted him to write his new article, “CDOs, Let’s Get Out of Our Comfort Zone” (01:08)
What Iván feels is necessary for data leaders to close the gap between data and the rest of the business and why (03:44)
Iván dives into who he feels really owns delivery of value when taking on new data science and analytics projects (09:50)
How Iván’s team went from managing technical projects that often didn’t make it to production to working on strategic projects that almost always make it to production (13:06)
The framework Iván has developed to upskill technical and business roles to be effective data / analytics translators (16:32)
The challenge Iván sees data leaders face as they move from setting and measuring tactical goals to moving towards strategic goals and initiatives (24:12)
Iván explains how the C-Suite’s attitude impacts the cross-functional role of data & analytics leadership (28:55)
The number one piece of advice Iván would give new CDO’s struggling with low adoption of their data products and solutions (31:45)
Quotes from Today’s Episode
“We’re going to do all our best to ensure that [...] everything that is expected from us is done in the best possible way. But that’s not going to be enough. We need a sponsorship and we need someone accountable for the project and someone who will be pushing and enabling the use of the solution once we are gone. Because we cannot stay forever in every company.” – Iván Herrero Bartolomé (10:52)
“We are trying to upskill people from the business to become data translators, but that’s going to take time. Especially what we try to do is to take product owners and give them a high-level immersion on the state-of-the-art and the possibilities that data analytics bring to the table. But as we can’t rely on our companies having this kind of talent and these data translators, they are one of the profiles that we bring in for every project that we work on.” – Iván Herrero Bartolomé (13:51)
“There’s a lot to do, not just between data and analytics and the other areas of the company, but aligning the incentives of all the organization towards the same goals in a way that there’s no friction between the goals of the different areas, the people, [...] and the final goals of the organization. – Iván Herrero Bartolomé (23:13)
“Deciding which goals are you going to be co-responsible for, I think that is a sophisticated process that it’s not mastered by many companies nowadays. That probably is one of the main blockers keeping data analytics areas working far from their business counterparts” – Iván Herrero Bartolomé (26:05)
“When the C-suite looks at data and analytics, if they think these are just technical skills, then the data analytics team are just going to behave as technical people. And many, many data analytics teams are set up as part of the IT organization. So, I think it all begins somehow with how the C-suite of our companies look at us.” – Iván Herrero Bartolomé (28:55)
“For me, [digital] means much more than the technical development of solutions; it should also be part of the transformation of the company, both in how companies develop relationships with their customers, but also inside how every process in the companies becomes more nimble and can react faster to the changes in the market.” – Iván Herrero Bartolomé (30:49)
“When you feel that everyone else not doing what you think they should be doing, think twice about whether it is they who are not doing what they should be doing or if it’s something that you are not doing properly.” – Iván Herrero Bartolomé (31:45)
