About this episode
After getting started in construction management, Anna Jacobson traded in the hard hat for the world of data products and operations at a VC company. Anna, who has a structural engineering undergrad and a masters in data science, is also a Founding Member of the Data Product Leadership Community (DPLC). However, her work with data products is more “accidental” and is just part of her responsibility at Operator Collective. Nonetheless, Anna had a lot to share about building data products, dashboards, and insights for users—including resistant ones!
That resistance is precisely what I wanted to talk to her about in this episode: how does Anna get somebody to adopt a data product to which they may be apathetic, if not completely resistant?
At the end of the episode, Anna gives us a sneak peek at what she’s planning to talk about in our final 2024 live DPLC group discussion coming up on 12/18/2024.
We covered:
(1:17) Anna's background and how she got involved with data products
(3:32) The ways Anna applied her experiences working in construction management to her current work with data products at a VC firm
(5:32) Explaining one of the main data products she works on at Operator Collective
(9:55) How Anna defines success for her data products
(15:21) The process of designing data products for "non-believers"
(21:08) How to think about "super users" and their feedback on a data product
(27:11) How a company's cultural problems can be a blocker for product adoption
(38:21) A preview of what you can expect from Anna's talk and live group discussion in the DPLC
(40:24) Closing thoughts from Anna
(42:54) Where you can find more from Anna
Quotes from Today’s Episode
“People working with data products are always thinking about how to [gain user adoption of their product]... I can’t think of a single one where [all users] were immediately on board. There’s a lot to unpack in what it takes to get non-believers on board, and it’s something that none of us ever get any training on. You just learn through experience, and it’s not something that most people took a class on in college. All of the social science around what we do gets really passed over for all the technical stuff. It takes thinking through and understanding where different [users] are coming from, and [understanding] that my perspective alone is not enough to make it happen.” - Anna Jacobson (16:00)
“If you only bring together the super users and don’t try to get
