TAKEAWAY - Why Data Teams Fail and Succeed with Shachar Meir

So, Shahar, you started with your background, you know, 20 years in the data space, all the experience you've had at Oracle, Meta, all these different places and different disciplines.

And you kind of came back ultimately to the same question of why do we keep failing around data and the impact of data? And so we asked, you know, honest, no BS, what's the reason why companies fail with their data? And, you know, your premise is that it's not about the technology.

More than ever, we've taken what was a very complicated technology landscape and discipline and turned it into something simple.

You mentioned, and this is true, this is not an exaggeration, you can create an entire data stack on a hyperscaler in three clicks, right? So like things have gotten so much easier now to build and to manage these different things.

Why do we still operate in such a technology-obsessed way? The new CDO comes in and they're like, well, my big initiative is we're moving to Databricks.

We're going to move all our databases.

You said the keys to success are people, process, culture.

People, who are the sponsors? Who cares about the data? Who are the champions? Data literacy, fluency, education.

Process, the taxonomies, definitions.

When we say things, what do we mean? How does the data team communicate? And then culture, which you actually tied especially to trust, right? Like something that data leaders, you said, don't spend enough time on.

and incentives, so data trust and incentives.

So, you know, you said, Hey, why do people get obsessed about the technology? Well, it's fun, right? And it's, and I think this was the big important point was that it's a thing they feel they have control over.

And, you know, if you really want to have an impact, you can't just spend your time and energy on the things you directly control, you need to do what is necessary to have that broader impact.

And it's these, you know, process people and culture where you need to do that.

You took this actionable and you said, if you're a data leader and you don't understand the business...

You need to go spend more time with the business.

And you talked about how you spent this time with the customer success team and what you can learn there.

Talking to the CEO and ask them not, hey, what are your data problems? Ask them, what are your problems, period? What are your initiatives? What are you trying to accomplish? Because through that, you can take your data understanding and bring it to them as opposed to forcing them to come to you.

And that's where you're going to unlock a lot more value.

Um, and, uh, you talked about incentives, right? And how do you create some, some incentives for different teams? You asked the junior member, what are you building? Because I was asked and then, uh, you know, what are they going to do with it? Uh, they don't know.

Then, you know, that's a problem and that's something that needs to be addressed.

So create the incentives where people ask why and learn about the business.

So much more, but Juan, what were your big takeaways?