About this episode
Wait, I’m talking to a head of data management at a tech company? Why!? Well, today I'm joined by Malcolm Hawker to get his perspective around data products and what he’s seeing out in the wild as Head of Data Management at Profisee. Why Malcolm? Malcolm was a former head of product in prior roles, and for several years, I’ve enjoyed Malcolm’s musings on LinkedIn about the value of a product-oriented approach to ML and analytics. We had a chance to meet at CDOIQ in 2023 as well and he went on my “need to do an episode” list!
According to Malcom, empathy is the secret to addressing key UX questions that ensure adoption and business value. He also emphasizes the need for data experts to develop business skills so that they're seen as equals by their customers. During our chat, Malcolm stresses the benefits of a product- and customer-centric approach to data products and what data professionals can learn approaching problem solving with a product orientation.
Highlights/ Skip to:
Malcolm’s definition of a data product (2:10)
Understanding your customers’ needs is the first step toward quantifying the benefits of your data product (6:34)
How product makers can gain access to users to build more successful products (11:36)
Answering the UX question to get past the adoption stage and provide business value (16:03)
Data experts must develop business expertise if they want to be seen as equals by potential customers (20:07)
What people really mean by “data culture" (23:02)
Malcolm’s data product journey and his changing perspective (32:05)
Using empathy to provide a better UX in design and data (39:24)
Avoiding the death of data science by becoming more product-driven (46:23)
Where the majority of data professionals currently land on their view of product management for data products (48:15)
Quotes from Today’s Episode
“My definition of a data product is something that is built by a data and analytics team that solves a specific customer problem that the customer would otherwise be willing to pay for. That’s it.” - Malcolm Hawker (3:42)
“You need to observe how your customer uses data to make better decisions, optimize a business process, or to mitigate business risk. You need to know how your customers operate at a very, very intimate level, arguably, as well as they know how their business processes operate.” - Malcolm Hawker (7:36)
“So, be a problem solver. Be collaborative. Be somebody who is eager to help make your customers’ lives easier. You hear "no"
