From the Humans of Data to Data Dream Teams
Tactical resources for data leaders and practitioners to answer the hard questions: how to structure data teams, what roles to hire for, how to plan & prioritise, team rituals and more
The Analyst. The Data Engineer. The Data Scientist. The Chief Data Officer. The Economist. The Machine Learning Researcher. The Analytics Engineer. The Data Governance Manager. The Data Product Manager. The Geospatial Analyst. The Data Platform Lead. The Consultant. The Data Security Officer. The DataOps Manager. The BI Developer. The Data Visualization Expert. The Research Associate. The Machine Learning Engineer. The data driven CRO, Marketer and Product Manager.
The Humans of Data.
Data teams are the most diverse teams ever created. Each human of data has their own tooling preferences. Their own skill sets. Their own limitations. Their own “DNA”.
When these amazingly diverse people come together and collaborate effectively, amazing things can happen: from curing cancer to developing self-driving cars to putting people on Mars. Amazing things that wouldn’t happen without the inherent diversity in these teams.
But they will only be successful if these diverse individuals find a way to collaborate effectively — when the humans of data become a real team.
Going from diverse individuals to dream data teams
As a data practitioner and data leader at Atlan, I’ve spent a good part of the past decade thinking, experimenting and learning about what it takes to build an amazing data team.
When I started my journey, there were hardly any resources that I could learn from about what it takes to create a great data team.
Even simple questions didn’t have answers. Questions like:
How should I organize and structure the team?
How do we handle responsibilities and dependencies?
How do we plan and prioritize?
What team rituals can help create an ecosystem of sharing and collaboration?
How can I create trust in a team of incredibly diverse folks?
What kind of learning and growth paths do I create?
Since then, there has been a vast improvement in the tools and technology available to modern data teams… a.k.a. the Modern Data Stack.
Yet, even today, there are hardly any resources about tactical ways to build a great data team and culture.
This is what inspired me to start this newsletter. (And finally join the cool kids on Substack!)
Over the next few years, I hope to partner with data leaders and amazing teams that are experimenting with new processes and rituals, and share in-depth stories about building great data teams to help data practitioners around the world.
If that sounds like it would be useful, hit the subscribe button below and let me know what you’d like to see. I have a day job 😉 so the inspiration would mean a lot!
In the meantime, tell your friends!