TAKEAWAY How data teams become trusted business partners with Nick Zervoudis

Well, we started off with honest, no BS.

How do data teams become trusted business partners? And Nick, you helped us start off by saying, hey, it's actually easier to think about how to not be a trusted business partner, because that's where a lot of data teams, unfortunately, find themselves today.

Uh, and what that means is, you know, a lot of data teams are acting more like, um, uh, sort of like a service desk, right? Like, Hey, my mouse broke.

And so I need a new mouse or an employee started.

And, uh, so they need a laptop.

And these, as you mentioned, uh, are, are requests that are much more kind of clearly defined.

You, you figure out what the issue is very rapidly, and then just an action kicks off.

Um, but a lot of the data analytical and AI oriented use cases are much more ambiguous.

and the request that can't be described in a few words.

And a lot of times, you know, you didn't say this at the beginning, but I think it's implied by a lot of what you kind of said throughout the episode is that there's like the organization has objectives, right? And you want to create an understanding and a relationship and a long-term kind of support For the organization to achieve those objectives, which is different than, you know, there are a few companies that have an OKR, which is like, we're going to make sure everyone has a mouse and a laptop.

Right.

Of course you need to do that.

Right.

But that's usually not the goal of the business.

Right.

Whereas we need to drive more revenue.

We got to save costs.

We need to mitigate risks.

Those are the core aspects of, of a for-profit business.

And so you have to think differently and not fall into this trap.

And a few pieces of advice you had, like one thing is like, look inwards, right? The problem is not, I mean, you may have some problems, but usually the core problem is not that the business stakeholders are idiots, right? It's that you're acting like a service desk and you need to act more like an advisor and a thought partner, less of the, hey, oh, you want a steak? Okay, you want it medium rare and a little bit more, Well, so why are you asking for a steak? Are you hungry? Do you like steak? Oh, you need nourishment.

Okay, well, maybe you want to eat this other thing, right? And let's work together on it.

You know, success factors you mentioned, right? You kind of had these four keys.

First, I want to work on the right problems worth solving.

Second, I want to do a good job solving them.