(US and Canada) Lauren Maffeo, Civic Tech Service Designer at SteamPunk, speaks with Robert Lutton, Vice President of Sandhill Consultants and Editorial Board Vice Chair at CDO Magazine, in a video interview about the prerequisites for implementing data governance, the role of the CDO, and the ways that data governance can be detrimental for using data effectively.

Speaking about the early-stage implementation of data governance, Maffeo says that while there is a lack of visibility into the ways data is used, data leaders should invest in building relationships with folks across the organization. They need to ask questions about how data is being used, what it is used for, and the main challenges. According to her, these conversations go a long way, especially for new leaders who are about to make major changes.

Maffeo highlights the need for CDOs to find executive support both verbally and budget-wise. She notes that it is common for data leaders to feel minimized as they are expected to do things with data regardless of the available budget. She urges CDOs to ask the CEO and COO questions about what they perceive data to do for their businesses and what they think the value is.

Further, Maffeo speaks about embedding data governance in engineering practices. She says that not incorporating data experimentation into engineering practices can erode trust, with people being unfamiliar with data. Providing the room to experiment and fail can provide valuable lessons around managing the data and the engineering team as they get used to automating new standards.

When asked if data governance can be too heavy-handed or if it always equals more value, Maffeo says that data governance in a highly bureaucratic environment can inspire more bureaucracy instead of enabling decision-making autonomy and transparency. It can turn into another top-down effort where the IT department shares a set of rules and the requests for data have to go through a centralized team, which can create even more bottlenecks.

Concluding, she adds that data governance works well if there are specific quality standards for all data deployed and ingested in the organization alongside a clear reason for using data that everyone in the business can articulate.

CDO Magazine appreciates Lauren Maffeo for sharing her insights and data success stories with our global community.

See more from Lauren Maffeo

Data Governance Is a Top-Down Effort

Governance Involves a Lot of Change