The Year Data Transformations Get Easier
Welcome to 2024, the rebooted newsletter, plans for Datent (and this newsletter) and some ways you can get involved
This is the year data transformations start getting a lot easier.
a community of changemakers to share ideas and best practice
common frameworks and language for data transformations
hard data on what works and what doesn’t (an end to the dubious stat that 70% fail - by what definition!?!)
accelerator programmes for org transformations (and not just startups); and
sooo much more to come.
Big plans … yes.
And that’s what makes this an exciting journey to go on together.
Community is central to everything that comes so I’d like to start this New Year newsletter by thanking you for being on this journey.
A huge welcome to new readers - you can read more about Datent’s aims here.
And a massive welcome back and apology to old readers - I’m sorry the newsletter went cold for a while. Last year ended with a juggle of contracting work, development work, delivering a pilot, business plans … something had to give.
I am now FULL TIME on Datent. Pilots are done. The training wheels are off. And the newsletter is back and bigger (more on that below).
Before I get into the plans for 2024, I should be responsible and start with a disclaimer in the form of one of my all-time favourite quotes.
“It’s a dangerous business, Frodo, going out of your door. You step into the road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there is no knowing where you might be swept off to.” Bilbo Baggins
Whilst the current destination is clear, Datent is a startup, and plans change or, as Steve Blank, author of the Startup Owner’s Manual (1 of my top 3 reads of 2023), put it:
“No business plan survives first contact with a customer”
So, onto plans … there are a few things to share, so feel free to jump to the section that interests you, coming up is:
Reminder of Datent’s Intents
Data Changemakers Community
Data Transformation Accelerator Programme
Data Leadership and Data and Decision Making Pulse Survey
Datent Opportunities - Investment, Partnerships and Hiring Plans
Newsletter Updates
Final Thoughts
Reminder of Datent’s Intents
In startup language Datent’s solution space (the problem we want to contribute to solving) is to make it easier and faster change how a organisation works.
Currently, transformations are too slow and fail too often.
If this doesn’t change, the gap between how organisations work and what technology makes possible will continue to grow, increasing the risk of structural unemployment as the skills of people in the workforce rapidly become outdated.
Equally, if we can’t solve challenges as simple as completing rollouts of data platforms, good luck with more complex and important challenges like net zero.
Datent is here to make transformations easier, starting with data transformations.
It used to be true that starting a business was harder than needed and that startups progressed too slowly and failed too often.
Hundreds of services and communities have sprung up to change that dynamic, and the startup scene is now flourishing.
Datent aims to bring about similar changes in the org transformation space.
Data Changemakers Community
The most significant investment Datent has made to date was last week to hire a community specialist to help build out the plans here.
This is just one way of stating how important the changemakers community will be.
My experience as a CDO was that I was invited to countless communities that only open to the data change leader (i.e CDO) - this is a concept I never understood as data transformations are so complex they need many leaders.
There were also numerous communities for the technical delivery areas of data (data science, engineering, visualisation etc.). But there was nothing for those working on changing how a company works - the community leads, evangelists, strategists, enablement managers, change managers. This is your space.
There will be a free and a paid tier (there are costs to cover). I’m still working on the structures, but there are two pieces of good news to share now.
First, I’m determined to get as much value add and activity in the free tier as possible.
Second, the free tier has already started, and you are in it (this substack). All Datent updates and events will announced here. A growing catalogue of frameworks and templates will all be here, as will longer-form articles on transformation. And much more to come.
To join the community, just subscribe (below).
A community platform is also being trialled with attendees of the Accelerator Programme before we look to open it up more around April.
First, though, the free New Year kick off publicised last year continue next week.
Coaching sessions to plan your 2024 data transformation goals
Four webinars on:
Measuring the Value of Data (18 Dec - recording here)
Value Focused Data Production Systems (8 Jan)
Managing Data Culture as a Product (10 Jan)
Setting up a Data Transformation SteerCo (12 Jan)
You can sign up for all the remaining webinars (here) and I’ll the recording links to this article later.
Data Transformation Accelerator Programme
Last year we piloted an Accelerator Programme designed to be an alternative to a data strategy engagements.
As a data leader or team, you develop or reassess your data strategy and transformation plan over a six weeks supported by coaching, frameworks, AI tools, templated materials and lessons.
It was a pilot, so it was bumpy and rough, but the feedback was incredible:
“a mind-opening experience and I really recommend this course to anyone leading a data team in the Digital Age or even a senior analyst supporting a leader”;
“this course would hold up very well as a module on the MBA I am doing”;
“What really stood out was how accessible the steps all are. There's nothing covered that seems out of reach, but the combination of an end-to-end data transformation journey, covering everything from product identification through to engaging sponsors and monitoring success is significantly more valuable than the sum of its parts”
The next accelerator programme has more content, is a massive iteration of the first programme, with more content and support and will start in February. Contact me (benny@datent.com) if you’d like more information.
If February isn’t right for you the programme will run 2-3 more times this year.
Data Leadership and Data and Decision Making Pulse Survey
I’m going to keep this simple as there will be an article on this in 2 weeks time.
As a CDO, I was frustrated with how un-data driven our sector is and how many data leadership surveys resulted in fascinating but not particularly useful findings.
It is time we had an anonymised but open data set on data organisations and transformations to help answer questions like:
Is there actually any correlation between those seeing results and those investing in catalogs/vectors/code-free ETL …?
What asks of the C-Suite have actually made a difference?
What literacy initiatives made an impact?
A lot of effort has gone into designing a survey to help answer these questions and more.
The biggest change though is that the questions are open too. This survey is for you, the community. So it is only right that you get decide questions to include in your data leadership survey so that the results (which you can access) give you the information you need for your business cases? Novel?
More on this in 2 weeks time, but feel free to comment with thoughts.
Datent Opportunities - Investment, Partnerships and Hiring Plans
This update is long already so I will keep this brief.
Datent will be growing this year.
I’m currently bootstrapping Datent, and the plan is to get serious about recruitment April/May time. If that interests you, lets have a conversation (benny@datent.com).
The bootstrap vs invest decisions will be around the same time and whist I’ve already had discussions with a couple of parties I’d love more perspectives. If this interests you, lets have a conversation (benny@datent.com).
Finally, whilst Datent aims to grow, there is no goal to be or compete with consultancies or SaaS vendors or compete with them. The aim is to partner to move the data sector forward and solve the data transformation problem through collaboration. There have been some great conversations, especially with independent consultants - so if this interests you, lets have a conversation (benny@datent.com).
Newsletter Updates
As Datent grows, this newsletter is going to get more active.
I respect your time and your inboxes, so I’m splitting the newsletter up so that you can choose what new content triggers a notification for you.
If you’re a subscriber, you will see a blue tick and a “subscribed” below (if you don’t you may need to sign in first or refresh if you only just subscribed).
Click on this, and you will come to a settings page where you can choose your notifications. It should look like this.
To help you decide, here is some more info on the content:
Datent - notifications on every update
Intentional Data Essays - longer form writing about the long term trends in data, data and society, learnings from other expert domains etc.
Transformation Tools and Tips - shorter practical tips and frameworks for running data change and transformation programmes
Datent updates - monthly (at most) updates on Datent, events, new services and a summary of all content since the last update
Final thoughts
If you’ve read this far, thank you!
The interest and feedback from people like you are the fuel that keeps solo founders going in the early stages.
Please never underestimate how grateful I am for your support, and never think twice about reaching out (benny@datent.com) if you have a question/a suggestion for an article/or just fancy a chat.
Happy New Year everyone - 2024 is going to be a great year and I look forward to getting to know you more as the community grows.