Workstream.io CEO Nick Freund is joined by two fantastic data leaders and practitioners to discuss one of the most common breakdowns in data: the workflows between data teams and the business teams they support. 

Today's guests are Mode Founder Benn Stancil, and Danielle Mendheim, the Director of Analytics & Strategy at Dr. Squatch. 

Learn more about how they envision the problem with these workflows - all the way from the intake of requests, through executing and sharing assets back out with their team - as well as the solutions they've implemented to counteract this breakdown.

Transcript:

[00:00:00] Nick Freund: So welcome back to Data Knowledge Pioneers, presented by Workstream io. And again, we're exploring how organizations create shared consciousness around your data. I'm Nick Freund*, and I'm speaking with leaders and data practitioners about the acute problems folks experience in creating, curating and disseminating knowledge about your data.

[00:00:31] And today specifically, we're diving into the problem of broken data and business workflows. There's lots of form factors to how data teams and business teams work together, and so we're gonna talk a little bit about where that breaks down. Joining me are two awesome data leaders that I'm really excited to explore this topic with.

[00:00:53] So, first off, we have Danielle Mendheim, who's the Director of Data and Analytics at Dr. Squatch, which is one of the fastest-growing natural men's soap and personal care companies in the country. And we also have Benn Stancil, who's the Co-founder and Chief Analytics Officer at Mode Analytic, which is a modern BI and data science platform. You may know him from his Substack. So, first off, Danielle, Benn, just thanks so much for joining me today.

[00:01:19] Danielle Mendheim: Thanks, Nick.

[00:01:20] Benn Stancil: Good to be here.

[00:01:21] Nick Freund: The way I wanted to start was just to see if we could define and just talk about the problem. What is it that we mean when we say that workflows between data teams and business teams are broken? At least from my perspective, every data team has some way that they use to manage requests from other folks in the business, or support work. But no one's typically happy with what ends up getting implemented. And so Danielle, I'm just wondering, is that how you see this problem? Like, are there other ways that you've seen this problem manifest in your experience?

[00:01:59] Danielle Mendheim: Yeah. One, it's definitely a problem. I feel like it's probably one of the biggest problems that we face at Dr. Squatch is, where are requests coming from, and how do we handle all of those different requests? I think the biggest thing is that they come from everywhere. And they're not really defined as what is actually a request, and when does it make the actual sprint? And when is it just simply a team asking the question? And so it's figuring out, how do you separate between those things, that has been the biggest challenge for us.

[00:02:33] Nick Freund: Benn, from our private conversations, I know that for a long time you've overseen internal analytics stuff at Mode, and you've been in data your whole career. How have you experienced this problem in the past? And does what Danielle said resonate with you?

[00:02:47] Benn Stancil: Yeah, certainly. And I think it's kind of broken everywhere, I would say. Where it's broken on the intake basically…

Data Knowledge Pioneers Ep. 3: Broken Data / Business Workflows

Workstream.io CEO Nick Freund asks: how can data teams capture knowledge and institutionalize it, rather than going down the all-too-commonly-trod road of creating and working within fragmented and tribal knowledge?

He dives into the topic with two brilliant data leaders: Michelle Ballen, Head of Data Analytics at Future, and Scott Breitenother, CEO and Founder of the Brooklyn Data Company.

TRANSCRIPT (abridged):
[00:00:00] Nick Freund: Hey everyone. Welcome back to Data Knowledge Pioneers, presented by Workstream.io and we're again exploring how organizations create shared consciousness around their data. And I'm Nick Freund and we're speaking with leaders and practitioners around the, you know, the acute problems they experience in creating and disseminating knowledge about your data. And so, specifically today we're, we're talking about the issue of fragmented and tribal knowledge. And, and how you can capture that knowledge, institutionalize it and ultimately enable your team. And really excited to introduce two awesome data leaders who always make me think differently about these types of topics.

[00:00:50] So first off, we have Michelle Ballen, who's the head of Data Analytics at Future, which provides one-on-one digital training with fitness coaches. And Scott Breitenother, uh, and I think I butchered his name again.

[00:01:04] Scott Breitenother: Close, close, close enough.

[00:01:06] Nick Freund: Uh, close enough. Uh, who's the founder of Brooklyn Data Company, which is a very large and fast growing data consultancy. Which among other things, gives out these awesome t-shirts. And so if you ever see Scott, uh, you definitely should ask him for one of these. Um, and you probably can get one if you email him at, I think it's just Scott of Brooklyn Data Company. Um, so anyways, Michelle, Scott, thanks so much for joining me today.

[00:01:31] Michelle Ballen-Griffin: Thanks for having us. Yes, that is my go-to gym shirt. Scott, I keep meaning to send you a gym selfie when I'm wearing the Brooklyn DataCo shirt. Um...

[00:01:40] Scott Breitenother: I appreciate it. We, we do t-shirts and data very well. Those are the two things we do. And everything else, it's, it's okay. But t t-shirts and data we do well. I'm glad you, I'm glad you both like it.

[00:01:50] Nick Freund: They're very comfortable. And I will plus one that I work out in this shirt quite a bit. Um, uh, cool. Well, so, uh, nonsequitors aside, I wanted to kind of start by talking about the problem of tribal and fragmented knowledge about your data. So like, what is this? And like, how will we define the problem? So I don't know, Michelle, like, do you have thoughts on how you would define the problem? Like, I have my opinion. But, uh, as a practitioner I would be really interested to hear how you define it.

[00:02:24] Michelle Ballen-Griffin: Yeah. I mean, there's like cross-functional work streams in different pockets of every organization. They have different initiatives that they're testing out. They're learning all the time. And how do you make sure that the knowledge that they're gaining via the initiatives they are testing, the hypotheses that they're validating, actually gets disseminated and shared throughout the organization. Because something that the team might learn on a marketing initiative, maybe it was like a campaign creative, oh, this really resonated with clients from an acquisition perspective, might be relevant to a member experience team who is kind of like doing ongoing sales, um, and kind of keeping clients engaged and retained. And so how do we make sure that the learnings that are happening over there, are being shared throughout the organization...

Data Knowledge Pioneers Ep. 2:  Taking On Fragmented & Tribal Knowledge 

Welcome to Data Knowledge Pioneers, the new podcast exploring how organizations create shared consciousness about their data.

I'm Nick Freund and I'm speaking with leaders and data practitioners about the acute problems they experience in creating, curating, and disseminating knowledge about their data.

Joining me are two awesome data leaders who know how easy it is for analytics environments to descend into what I like to call a state of chaos.

• Jamie Davidson, who's the co-founder of Omni, an awesome new BI platform. He's also the former VP of Product at Looker.

• Ted Conbeer, who's the Chief Data Officer at Privacy Dynamics, and former SVP of Data and Strategy at MakeSpace.

I hope you enjoy the discussion–would love to hear listener feedback nick@workstream.io

Data Knowledge Pioneers Ep. 1: Exploring Entropy in Analytics Environments

Welcome to Data Knowledge Pioneers, presented by Workstream.io, where we explore how organizations create shared consciousness around data. I’m Nick Freund, and on the show, I speak with leaders and data practitioners about the acute problems experienced in creating, curating, and disseminating data knowledge.