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When you ask most organizations what their most valuable asset is, they’ll likely tell you it’s their people. Of course, this is true, but most organizations already know their people are valuable assets and treat them as such. In contrast, one undermanaged asset that most organizations have where there is huge and relatively untapped potential is their data.

Data’s value is skyrocketing because the non-data portions of businesses are commoditizing. There is less room for differentiation, which makes it more difficult to grow, expand and remain competitive. But what businesses could generate from their data, on the other hand, is distinct because it has much more potential to scale.

But if you ask these same organizations why—and how—their data is valuable, they will probably have a hard time answering you. That’s because many are struggling to get value out of their data. And it’s because they are not managing their data in the right way. For organizations to truly benefit from the data they collect, they must manage it as a product.

To be a data product, data must be usable, discoverable, addressable and trustworthy. That means knowing what kind of entities the data product encapsulates and ensuring that it remains clean, integrated and continuously updated. This requires work. Left alone, the data atrophies, becoming dirty, incomplete and outdated and leading to faulty insights and bad decisions.

Managing data as a product requires organizations to think—and act—differently. They must assign ownership and accountability for their specific data domains and implement the right processes and technologies to support them. In short, they need to implement a data product strategy.

What is a data product strategy?

A data product strategy brings structure to the ownership, processes and technology needed to ensure your organization has clean, curated and continuously-updated data. It’s consumption-oriented, focusing on how the organization uses and consumes data. And when an organization has a data product strategy, it signals a true commitment to data, not just lip service, as is the case in many organizations.

Successful data product strategies often employ the role of the data product owner to manage data products, similar to the way a product owner manages software solutions. Just like product owners focus on the usage of their product, data product owners focus on how users throughout the organization use and consume the data. It’s a newer role but one that is rising in importance as data consumers are embracing the idea of data products.

A data product strategy also recognizes the need to organize data products around key, logical entities, such as customers, suppliers, products and employees. This organization is critical as most companies will have hundreds of data products that deliver to their data consumers.

Successful data product strategies also employ the right data management technologies such as modern data mastering and data enrichment to ensure that the organization’s data is clean and integrated.

Why does your organization need a data product strategy?

If your organization wants to become truly data-driven, then you need a data product strategy. It’s that simple. But if you need a little bit more convincing, here are three reasons why you should consider implementing a data product strategy in 2023.

1. Every business is a data business.

Like it or not, your business is a data business. And because of this fact, you need to start managing your data as a product and orienting its design around the experience of the data users. Employ data product owners and consider investing in modern data mastering and enrichment technologies so you can ensure your data is always updated, clean and accurate.

2. Data, left unattended, becomes stale.

Much of the data entered into your enterprise systems is incorrect or incomplete. And when you leave that dirty data unattended, the situation becomes even worse. Business users lose trust in the insights generated by your analytics. Or worse, they make ill-informed decisions based on bad data. A data product strategy signals that your organization is committed to becoming data-driven. It means that managing and cleaning data becomes part of everyone’s job, not just the responsibility of the data team. As a result, your organization will have the clean, curated, continuously-updated data needed to drive better decision-making and more efficient operations.

3. Data lives in siloes.

Most, if not all, organizations today have data silos. And these data silos often reflect the structure of the organization and the systems it uses to create data. Companies organized by geography or product line will have systems—and therefore data—that are organized into silos the same way. By implementing a data product strategy, you can break down data silos by orienting your data products around consumption and use. Then, with modern data mastering, you can integrate and enrich your data across these disparate systems, ensuring that it’s always clean, up-to-date and ready for use in decision-making.

To conclude, I’ll leave you with this prediction: Companies that implement a data product strategy and view data products as the primary artifact they deliver to their organization are the ones that will succeed, not just today but well into the future.

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