Today I am following up the last organisation article with an article describing some of the roles surrounding the data team. Roles that have a daily interaction with the team.
2. Surrounding roles – Roles directly interacting with the data team
3. Platform and facilitating roles – Roles making sure that the data teams have the right foundation to stand on.
4. Data Transformation roles – Roles that make sure that the transformation is ongoing
5. Data Governance and Data Management roles.
In some organisations these roles are situated in the team and in some organisations they sit outside of the team. Often it depends on the size and culture of the organisation. In many cases one person can have two of these roles at the same time.
Product Owner – The product owner manages the product backlog containing a list of features and requirements that the product should fulfil. The PO works closely with the business translator, business expert and data expert to make sure that the right data is used and the right business logic is applied to the data resulting in a product that meets the business needs. In many larger organisations the PO sits in the data team and not in the business, this may require extra effort spent to ensure a tight collaboration with the business. (Permanent role)
Product Manager – The product manager owns the strategic direction of the products within the PMs scope. Often managing the data products for a whole domain the PM aligns with the domains leaders to ensure that the strategic roadmap for the data product results in a good landscape. (Permanent role, sometimes combined with PO role)
Data Expert – The big difference between a data product and a software product is the focus on data and how that data is to be used. This requires deep knowledge about the data. How is the data defined, where is it sourced from, how does the data work in real life, what are fun surprises in the data, etc. There is rarely someone with the formal role of data expert. Typically it is someone with a lot of experience from the area and the systems creating the data. (Use-case specific role)
Business Expert – The business expert is the person that understands how the business really works. BE can describe the business process, why the process is defined in that manner, how the process and decisions can be improved with data and what decisions needs to be made in order to improve the process. (Use-case specific role)
UI/UX Expert – Data is seldom useful if it is not used. We have all seen too many large and wide reports where it is up to the user to find whatever is important. The UI/UX expert helps guide the development of how the decision maker can get the right information at the right time in the best manner. And make sure that the experience is easy and intuitive. (Often a supporting role, not a permanent role)
The purpose of these roles are to ensure that the delivery of data products fit the business needs as well as possible and have a direct positive impact on the performance of the business process.
Some of them are permanently tied to the team and some will be in contact as needed. However it is very important to identify the right people and establish the relationship.