Data Architecture Trends Part 2; How to Demonstrate Data Value by Productising

Treating Data as a Valuable Product in Modern Data Stack

Hanzala Qureshi
4 min readOct 22, 2023
Photo by Lars Kienle on Unsplash

For as long as I can remember, we have been talking about "data as an asset".

It's an asset for an organisation; we should treat it as such. However, it is impossible to get buy-in for this approach. If data truly is an asset, why do companies fail to invest in it? You wouldn't let your company's offices (an asset on the balance sheet) become derelict by not keeping up with repairs and maintenance, right?

The implementation of this approach has been littered with challenges. How do you quantify an asset? i.e. in a physical reality, what does it mean? If you can't explain that to a stakeholder, you can't reasonably expect them to own that asset.

Introducing Data Products; bridging the gap between loosely defined data assets and clearly defined physical outcomes with a business context.

So — What Is Data Productisation?

When Wozniak built the Apple I, he initially wanted to give away the design for free to other engineers.

Jobs saw this piece of kit as a "product", something that is real, tangible, valuable, sellable & usable. Similarly to Wozniak…

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Hanzala Qureshi

Data Architecture Consultant | Data Evangelist | Learn more about all things data by following me @ hanzalaqureshi.medium.com