Sunday, February 9, 2025

Contentsquare’s Final Information to Constructing and Scaling a Information Governance Program – Atlan


Expertise analytics software program chief leverages collaboration, information high quality, and information cataloging collectively to speed up Analytics and BI utilizing Information Governance

At a Look

  • Contentsquare, a number one digital expertise platform, sought to launch a knowledge governance program after years of serious development
  • Selecting Atlan, Contentsquare launched their program with a single supply of context, transparency, and interplay throughout a various vary of customers
  • Having efficiently launched information governance, Contentsquare now advantages from a totally mapped information property, helps essential KPIs with single house owners and shared definitions, has streamlined collaboration, and has propagated data and requirements of information high quality throughout its belongings

Contentsquare is an organization that lives and breathes information. With over 1,000 clients and over 1,600 staff, their digital expertise analytics platform offers wealthy context and insights into habits, emotions, and intent at every touchpoint in a buyer journey.

With $1.4B in funding, and now in its Sequence F spherical, Contentsquare’s meteoric development has been enabled by information. And on the heart of creating that information accessible, comprehensible, and reliable are their Information Governance workforce. Composed of Kenza Zanzouri, Information Governance Strategist, and Otavio Leite Bastos, International Information Governance Lead, Contentsquare’s workforce led an Atlan Masterclass to share how Information Governance is able to accelerating important enterprise outcomes.

The Significance of Information Governance

Contentsquare’s requirements are excessive. They count on information governance to behave as an accelerator, not a hindrance, to their Analytics and Enterprise Intelligence duties.

“Information Governance will help us have a quicker time to worth,” Otavio defined. “From the time you decide to an analytics challenge till you ship it, you can also make it quicker. If dashboards go stay quicker, and if evaluation may be quicker, then decision-making is quicker. We will additionally promote quicker onboarding for brand spanking new information professionals, and velocity up remediations of any information downtime that we would have.”

With ambitions as excessive as Contentsquare’s, their workforce is conscious of hanging a fragile steadiness between being a enterprise enabler, and constructing a robust analytics basis to keep away from the pitfalls {that a} governance perform is anticipated to handle.

Contentsquare’s workforce understood the potential penalties if their dedication to information governance was inadequate, or went unsponsored altogether.

“We would have two completely different folks calculating the identical metric utilizing two completely different strategies or formulation, resulting in completely different selections. We will even have information flows which can be poorly identified, so we don’t grasp our information pipelines. Being compliant with information safety pointers and laws could be very difficult,” Otavio shared. “And information reliability could be in danger. So you’ll have information shoppers calculating and re-calculating metrics to match with dashboards, not trusting the dashboards which can be stay.”

Information Governance at Contentsquare

Contentsquare’s information workforce consists of 10 folks, reporting to the CIO, and segmented into three groups. Information Analytics consists of a Lead and 4 Analysts, Information Engineering consists of a Lead with two Engineers, and Information Governance consists of a Lead and a Strategist.

“We’re the heads of KPI requirements. For any formulation, for any technique of calculating metrics, it’s as much as us to orchestrate and lead folks to establish the requirements for a very powerful metrics on the firm. Second is information high quality, testing information to see if it’s behaving accurately, and as anticipated,” Otavio shared. Additionally essential for the Information Governance workforce is information safety, guaranteeing that greatest practices are completely executed, and laws are adhered to.

Dwelling on the heart of every of the Information Governance workforce’s duties is Atlan, advancing their constitution of accessibility, understandability, and trustworthiness. “It’s our dwelling for each KPI and dashboard that we’ve on the firm,” Otavio defined. “Our objective is to make information accessible. Information should be easy, comprehensible. And information should be reliable.”

Contentsquare’s Fashionable Information Stack

Contentsquare’s information stack consists of supply methods like Salesforce, Workday, and Hubspot flowing by means of Matillion, their integration layer. Snowflake serves as their information storage layer, with a knowledge lake containing uncooked information, a knowledge warehouse with remodeled information, and information marts instantly related to Tableau and Google Information Studio for visualization and evaluation. Lastly, Monte Carlo serves as Contentsquare’s information high quality device.

Contextualizing and activating this information stack, and serving on the heart of their information governance perform, is Atlan. 

“Information area house owners can each learn information from Atlan and write information to Atlan. Similar for KPI house owners, who can learn any info, however may enrich Atlan with documentation,” Otavio defined. “We’ve got a knowledge catalog. We’ve got a glossary that’s dwelling for our most essential KPIs and metrics. And we will catalog each dashboard that we’ve on the firm, and do computerized information lineage, which may be very good.” 

And to ease collaboration throughout a spectrum of customers, Contentsquare has built-in Atlan with Slack, enabling seamless communication about their information belongings.

Treating Information Output as a Information Product

Contentsquare views information governance as a solution to deliver readability to a fancy, difficult-to-understand panorama of belongings, possession, and context. “You would possibly discover in any firm throughout the globe that there are dashboards, KPI house owners, information fields, information well being checks, information shoppers, and never the whole lot is related. They’re flowing in an ocean, and nobody understands their which means or how they’re associated,” Otavio defined.

However with a well-defined governance program, these dots are related, expressing significant hyperlinks between Contentsquare’s information belongings, know-how, and folks, avoiding inefficiencies throughout their information operations.

Step one towards launching a governance program was to raised outline possession and duty utilizing a Information Product Tree, and to ruthlessly prioritize by defining a very powerful metrics to their enterprise.

Defining a Information Product Tree

Underpinning the idea of information merchandise was fastidiously outlined area possession, and the popularity that treating dashboards, evaluation, and reviews as merchandise required orchestration throughout technical features. “The idea is sort of easy. You’ve information merchandise linked to make use of instances. Use instances are linked to some underlying information. And you have to carry out some information high quality monitoring on every information discipline,” Otavio defined.

Prioritizing Metrics

With a framework for cross-functional possession of information merchandise outlined, it was essential for the workforce to concentrate on rolling out merchandise the place they might have the very best impression. For Contentsquare, that meant defining the metrics that their enterprise demanded, defining their precedence, and executing from most-to-least essential.

“Our prime precedence was our High KPIs on the firm, which measure the well being of the enterprise across the globe for any division within the firm,” Otavio shared. “That’s the place we centered 60-80% of our effort, till now. Our second precedence was Strategic KPIs, essential at a division degree. Perhaps these KPIs are solely essential to the Gross sales, Advertising, or Finance departments. And the final precedence was team-level metrics, perhaps measuring the efficiency of a challenge in a small workforce within the firm, these are Operational KPIs.”

Executing Information Governance and Information High quality

With know-how and possession outlined, and a prioritization framework recognized, Contentsquare then began a 5-step course of to place their information governance and high quality perform into observe.

Step 1: Information Prioritization

First was formalizing information prioritization, figuring out a very powerful metrics and use instances for enrichment. Storing this info in a profile for every important asset in Atlan, Contentsquare’s workforce documented descriptions, enterprise guidelines, how metrics have been calculated, formulation, and formal house owners.

Step 2: Information Cataloging and Information Lineage

Subsequent, with information belongings correctly enriched, the workforce utilized Atlan’s automated lineage to map how every information asset comes into being.

“We all know the place information is coming from, we all know the place information goes to. Is that this information going to new tables, new dashboards, new extractions on Tableau, for instance? That’s what we will know utilizing Atlan,” Otavio shared. “And what’s very good is that Atlan will robotically sync to our databases and to our information visualization device. For all of our mapping, we didn’t do something manually.

Step 3: Information Safety

With information belongings correctly outlined and contextualized, and with their full lineage understood, the workforce undertook a classification train, defining the sensitivity of information and specifying who would have entry to it.

“What’s very fascinating is that Atlan will robotically propagate these classifications to the underlying information belongings,” Otavio defined. “If in case you have a metric, and anybody within the firm can entry that metric, then the information behind that asset will also be accessed by anybody. It simply retains coherence between our metrics and underlying information.”

Step 4: Information High quality

Turning to Monte Carlo, the workforce constructed out monitoring and information high quality triggers. Within the occasion of a knowledge problem, alerts could be despatched on to Slack, the place information house owners might click on into incidents, triage, and proper them, as wanted. Additional, utilizing Atlan’s native integration with Monte Carlo, every alert creates an announcement inside all affected information asset profiles in Atlan.

Step 5: Information Insurance policies and Processes

Lastly, having outlined greatest practices, carried out a glossary and documentations, and constructed a framework for information high quality, the workforce moved to create information insurance policies in processes, beginning the method of coaching customers, and iterating to make sure their laborious work would end in a persistent, improved approach of working.

Constructing Personas

“Atlan facilitated the centralization of all important belongings and enterprise definitions, so we might then fulfill the day-to-day challenges of various folks at Contentsquare,” Kenza shared. With a various array of potential customers throughout completely different departments, with completely different operational wants, the workforce moved their focus to bettering information worth streams. Referencing the Atlan Worth Stream Library, a group of greatest practices obtainable to Atlan clients, Kenza and her workforce began the method by defining personas.

First was Sego, a Enterprise Analyst accountable for delivering reviews and dashboards that assist Contentsquare’s enterprise groups perceive their efficiency. “She would possibly say ‘Why is it so laborious to grasp what I can use and who I ought to attain out to?’ She wants a go-to area the place information cataloging, information lineage, and dashboards are only a click on away,” Kenza defined.

Subsequent was Hiroto, a Information Engineer accountable for sustaining enterprise intelligence information pipelines and securing information flows. The workforce realized that Contentsquare’s Information Engineers would profit from metadata to assist them prioritize migrations, optimize information processes, and enhance their information warehouse, and automatic lineage to grasp the downstream impacts of their work.

Jill, a enterprise consumer from Contentsquare’s Buyer Success Operations workforce, was much less technically savvy, however was data-driven in her enterprise selections. These enterprise customers would profit from extra context to raised conceptualize the information obtainable to them as they deliberate the quarters and years forward for his or her departments. “All of those departments look ahead to a transparent approach of digesting the information generated by all of our sources,” Kenza shared.

The ultimate persona was Martin, Contentsquare’s CIO, who required full visibility on their information surroundings, and a view of all of their information, sourced and guarded in a single location.

“As you possibly can see, all of our personas are essential to think about. However most share frequent difficulties. It’s why it’s essential to take heed to information consultants and information shoppers, who can construct a robust information governance framework with you,” Kenza defined.

Overcoming Rollout Challenges

Even with a method as well-defined as Contentsquare’s, the workforce confronted early challenges, and steered taking time to align stakeholders, guarantee sturdy possession, and thoughtfully deal with consumer wants to extend adoption.

Problem 1: Alignment

The primary problem confronted by the Contentsquare workforce was considered one of alignment, referring to a single, shared sense of reality round every of their KPIs and BI deliverables, obtainable in a single, simple-to-access location. “We went from three definitions and formulation for a similar KPI, which was quite a bit, to a single definition and formulation. We needed to make it possible for everybody was aligned, on the identical web page, on Atlan,” Kenza shared.

Problem 2: Possession

Second was guaranteeing that for every information asset and business-critical KPI, {that a} single proprietor could be recognized. “Figuring out the precise particular person lowered stress, after all, but additionally time. It might ease adoption, and deal with accurately, in a well timed method, all data-related points,” Kenza defined.

The place Contentsquare’s belongings as soon as had a number of house owners, driving confusion from finish customers, and further effort for area consultants, there’s now a single, empowered proprietor for every information asset and KPI.

Problem 3: Consumer Engagement

Lastly, the workforce took a considerate method to consumer engagement, sustaining sturdy particular person relationships and a excessive normal of service, whereas additionally scaling their attain by means of a group method.

“It was clear that coaching and constructing a robust group round information cataloging, helped us go from low adoption to rising adoption,” Kenza defined. To make sure that the customers they wanted to interact understood the significance of collaborating, Kenza and Otavio additionally enlisted the assist of Contentsquare’s management workforce.

Contentsquare’s Governance Technique in Motion

With the precise know-how in place, a knowledge governance and high quality technique efficiently launched, and personas that ensured solutioning was invaluable to their finish customers, Otavio shared an instance of what’s potential.

Utilizing the combination between Atlan and Monte Carlo, Contentsquare’s workforce efficiently launched a use case to speak information high quality alerts to an array of downstream stakeholders. When an incident is recognized on Monte Carlo, info is pushed into Atlan, the place an alert seems in every affected information asset’s profile.

“This script will robotically detect points, and put an announcement in Atlan telling the consumer to contact the information proprietor,” Otavio defined. “Anybody navigating to Atlan and looking for the precise dataset will know if they will use a dataset. Right here, we’ve an entire propagation and hyperlink between the enterprise world and the information world. We’re sending alerts to datasets on Atlan, however we’re additionally sending alerts to any metrics which can be utilizing a dataset as a reference to be calculated.”

For extra technical customers, like information house owners or engineers, a easy seek for a knowledge asset in Atlan will yield a hyperlink instantly into Monte Carlo, the place additional evaluation may be performed, like viewing previous incidents, freshness, quantity evolution, lineage, and schema adjustments.

When to Begin Information Governance

Essential to Contentsquare’s success was beginning Information Governance and an opportune time. Otavio started by contemplating, then measuring, the dimensions of his workforce and the speed of their output, establishing a baseline.

With a small workforce of 1 to 2 information analysts, Contentsquare discovered that it might take one month to construct a manufacturing dashboard. Over time, their information workforce grew to assist the rising wants of their enterprise. “Extra folks means fewer parallel duties. So you possibly can ship worth quicker. You recruit extra folks, and as a substitute of spending one month constructing a dashboard, perhaps you spend two weeks and the dashboard will probably be stay,” Otavio shared.

The apparent assumption for information groups is that as headcount and assets develop, time-to-value will proceed to decrease, however Contentsquare discovered that this was not the case. Because the variety of analysts grew, their options elevated in technical depth, and a rising variety of technical belongings like scripts would go with out updates. Their information lake grew, making it extra obscure what information belongings have been obtainable. Processes modified at a excessive tempo, and with new groups throughout the globe, new methods of working, together with how metrics have been calculated or information high quality was measured, grew to become misaligned.

Regardless of a rising headcount, and higher know-how, the tempo of supply slowed.

“So when is the great time to start out information governance? It’s once you begin realizing that you just’re recruiting extra information analysts and perhaps much more information engineers, and it’s not fixing your issues. You’re truly spending increasingly time to ship a knowledge challenge, as a result of you’ve so many blocks, so many pitfalls, and so many traps alongside the best way.”

To establish the proper time to start a knowledge governance program, the Contentsquare workforce emphasised the significance of measurement. Utilizing a challenge administration device like Jira, information groups ought to measure the time it takes for initiatives to finish, from defining specs till supply. When time to worth slows, the chance for information governance to speed up outcomes is at its highest.

Key Takeaways

Wanting again on the profitable launch of Information Governance at Contentsquare, Kenza considers 4 key items of recommendation for information leaders contemplating an analogous journey.

1: Centralize Much less, Orchestrate Extra

“Suggestions may be very, crucial. It’s essential to make investments effort and time right into a profitable framework with out taking full duty and motion. Take into consideration participating completely different stakeholders, centralizing much less and orchestrating extra. Outline what attractiveness like for various personas, folks, information groups, and enterprise shoppers, so we will all leverage collaboration and embrace change.”

2: Deal with Deliverables as Information Merchandise

“Attain out to completely different stakeholders, gather all of the logical hyperlinks to your information belongings, and also you’ll positively optimize prices and generate worth.”

3: Guarantee Clear Possession

“Establishing key stakeholders within the enterprise is a key takeaway. They will help you construct a robust, and long-term information high quality and governance perform.”

4: Break Down your Information Governance Program

“Information governance is new for lots of people. It’s essential to take your time. You need to break it up into completely different trainings. It’s essential to guarantee what you pot in place is nice for everybody.”

Photograph by Startaê Workforce on Unsplash

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