#278 Data Contracts for the Rest of Us - Approaching Contracts in Evolving Companies - Interview w/ Ryan Collingwood

Please Rate and Review us on your podcast app of choice!Get involved with Data Mesh Understanding's free community roundtables and introductions: https://landing.datameshunderstanding.com/If you want to be a guest or give feedback (suggestions for topics, comments, etc.), please see hereEpisode list and links to all available episode transcripts here.Provided as a free resource by Data Mesh Understanding. Get in touch with Scott on LinkedIn.Transcript for this episode (link) provided by Starburst. You can download their Data Products for Dummies e-book (info-gated) here and their Data Mesh for Dummies e-book (info gated) here.Ryan's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryancollingwood/In this episode, Scott interviewed Ryan Collingwood, Head of Data and Analytics at OrotonGroup. To be clear, he was only representing his own views on the episode.Some key takeaways/thoughts from Ryan's point of view:Have empathy for yourselves and others in all things you do around data. You won't always get it right the first time. Build the relationships, build the trust to continually drive and iterate towards better.In tech, far too often we hear what people need and provide a poor solution to actually solving their needs. It's focusing on the tech instead of the people.Far too many technical solutions/approaches - e.g. data mesh, data contracts, etc. - are really presented for tech-heavy/forward companies e.g. startups. Most companies, large or small, are not capable to leverage the approaches as presented so they must be adapted for 'the rest of us' companies. Scott note: data mesh is like thisFar too often, these tech approaches focus purely on the tech instead of the people. That's partially because every org has a different culture so you can't cover them all; but if you only follow the approach as presented instead of focus on the people/ways of working in your org, it's far less likely to go well. You've implemented a great technical solution that no wants to or can use.?Controversial?: "What are the trade-offs that I can make, while still being true to the value and the benefits that I want to get out of this?" Scott note: SO important to consider when looking at any technical pattern/approach. What is true to the value of the approach?Data contracts really rely on 3 things: at least two parties, an agreement of some kind that is recorded, and access to data that conforms to that agreement. You can add value building beyond those 3 but you have to start somewhere and you can deliver value with something that only satisfies those 3.?Controversial?: It's hard not to have a sense of imposter syndrome when you actually strip a concept...