Friction is a data teams biggest challenge

Jesse Anderson ran a survey which had some interesting results. One of the key takeaways that stood out to me is this:

Management must look at friction and its impact on the data teams. For some companies, this means data projects go nowhere or underperform. Working well with the business side is equally important.

By friction they mean:

• Friction from working with others
• Poor interactions and feedback
• Shifting priorities

This doesn’t surprise me. Data teams often need to work well with people in other parts of the organisation, while themselves being located away from those people.

So, how can we reduce this friction?

It’s mostly communication.

This excellent Catalog and Cocktails podcast episode with Anna Bergevin shows the value of having a Data Product Manager or someone with those skills focussed on improving communication and how the team works with others.

Only once you have improved that communication you can look at changing how you work with the business and bringing in solutions like data contracts to help document and codify the communication, responsibilities, and agreements.