Data Teams Must Shift From Execution to Strategic Business Partnership

Key Quotes

"oftentimes i characterize the work into two areas one is your craft which is the data work we do in terms of the building the reporting and you know the analysis that we provide and then the storytelling part of it it's not just the analysis but taking it forward to a level that it influences the roadmaps of any you know of the product team or the marketing team or the supply chain team so looking at back looking back at all of these data teams often times struggled by not providing perspective not being in the room where decisions are being made it was always serving the stakeholder not serving the business problem and you know that really you know that framing really helped me identify what areas to influence and i came up with this formulation of you know it's not just the data that matters it's the perspective and the actions ultimately we are trying to create impact with these decisions and a little bit bold statement is there is not much data in the data roles there's a lot of like decisions and decision making that is involved in the data roles that really matters ultimately at the value stage so that's a bit of background on this framework"

Goutham Budati explains that data roles often focus too much on the technical "craft" of data work and not enough on the "storytelling" aspect. He argues that true influence comes from providing perspective and driving action, rather than just delivering data. Budati suggests that the ultimate goal is to create impact through decisions, and that the decision-making process itself is a critical component of data roles.

"if you're a data engineer or an analytics engineer largely you need to always continuously think how your work provides value to the organization and i'm talking also more specifically relevant to companies in the series b to series c fast growing startups where the teams are leaner you're in the business of not building infrastructure you're in the business of creating value to the organization so in the data perspective and action framework a typical role focuses largely on the data portion which is building the infrastructure the reliability of the data the consistency in terms of how you're you know providing data to your stakeholders but i would extend it to you know providing your perspective and you know calling into action what the business is not doing and be the inner voice of the company that will bring you into that you know decision rooms that you're not in right now"

Budati emphasizes that data engineers and analytics engineers, especially in fast-growing startups, should prioritize creating organizational value over simply building infrastructure. He advocates for extending their roles beyond data provision to include offering perspective and prompting action. Budati believes this proactive approach will position them as key influencers within the company, earning them a seat at the decision-making table.

"i would say that we need to force some time during the week to get away from the day to day of the work step back zoom out and look at the business context and it's not difficult to get this because you have peers in on the business side or you have your manager or you have analysts who can really help you gain the context by timeboxing and forcing yourself to have a perspective it will really help you develop a macro perspective over a period of so not saying you have to you know trade off between these two it's about you know carving that small you know 5 time within your week or 10 of the time and really you know focusing on building perspective that really helps you draw a line from what's in the data what's buried in the data to the business because oftentimes decisions are at a high level sometimes made based on emotions and are rationalized later through data but objectively the data team could be looking at things deep in the data that are not passed on to the business so building this perspective really builds a handshake with the business"

Budati advises data professionals to intentionally set aside time each week to step back from daily tasks and engage with the broader business context. He suggests that this can be achieved by collaborating with peers, managers, or analysts to gain a macro perspective. Budati argues that this practice is crucial for connecting deep data insights to business decisions, which are often influenced by emotion and later rationalized with data.

"whenever a request comes to you what are you going to do with that many teams might have briefs or you know some templates in terms of a ticketing system or maybe teams brainstorm and sit down and talk about problems but you have to have a product mindset here you need to always ask these three ps the first p is what is the problem really clarifying what problem you're solving for next is who are we solving this problem for the person is this a set of people on the stakeholder side are we solving it for few functions really articulating that really helps and then why now oftentimes you'd be surprised that a lot of these requests are curiosity requests that probably will not sustain the you know prioritization scheme if you really stress test it so asking these three questions really helps you form an understanding of whether you're seeing the same request coming from different stakeholders at different points in time should you build an infra that is rather self serve again self serve is a loaded word and this group would know a lot more but that would really help and then and then following through by launching not the perfect version but rather a version 0 8 and co creating either the dashboard or the end result which could be sending data back into a marketing channel or you know assigning it to a vendor working with your stakeholder will help you develop this perspective"

Budati proposes adopting a product mindset when responding to data requests, emphasizing the importance of clarifying the "three Ps": Problem, Person, and Priority (Why Now). He suggests that by rigorously asking these questions, data teams can better understand the underlying needs and avoid fulfilling mere curiosity requests. Budati also advocates for launching a minimum viable product (MVP) and co-creating solutions with stakeholders to build a deeper understanding and perspective.

"my favorite way of operating is actually having your dashboard as a living roadmap so in the example that you brought up the third column would just say tbd or it's coming or you know have some you know messaging there so that people know instantly that when they're consuming this is coming on this particular data or this part of the roadmap driving clarity through your process is very important and i think seeking out perspective in this manner and doing design sessions and using surfaces as a way to communicate largely you know clarifies to your stakeholders on what you're working on"

Budati suggests treating dashboards as "living roadmaps" to enhance clarity and stakeholder communication. He proposes using placeholders like "TBD" or "Coming Soon" for future features within dashboards. Budati believes this approach, combined with design sessions and clear communication, helps stakeholders understand the ongoing development and future plans for data products.

"i think one of the reasons this framework is going to help and be very self serving is if you yourself cannot be confident in the decisions to take make based on data you will empathize with the stakeholder pain a lot more than seeing the pains of the stakeholder as you know maybe complaints or you know stakeholder is always unhappy they are unhappy probably for a reason and because you cannot replicate the decisions based on the data consistency that the systems are providing so if i if i take a step back there is obviously a phase of trust building where