CDO Matters Ep. 18 | When Data Is Your Product with Saleem Khan

As an expert in your field, you need to approach your work from every perspective. If a medical doctor can deliver a particular diagnosis for a patient, then they should also be able to do the same for themself. The same principle applies to data organizations and how they approach their own enterprise data. As a CDO, if your internal customers must pay to access the data or insights you provide, would they feel confident in your ability to deliver value from your data products? Is your business singularly focused on understanding and meeting customer needs — both now and on the road ahead? If not, then what’s standing in your way? For many CDOs, the answer lies in making that crucial transition from being data-driven to data product-driven. In this episode, we discuss making the shift to becoming data product-driven. Malcolm is joined by Saleem Khan, Discovery Data’s Chief Data & Analytics Officer (CDAO). During the discussion, Saleem shares valuable insights on thriving within the CDO’s function for an organization whose core product is data. Saleem’s shared insights include a framework for managing a data product pipeline, leading a team of data product managers and implementing processes to anticipate future market demand. Saleem’s recommendations even include insights on a sales enablement methodology that can be used to ensure data consumers will derive benefit from data products and the critical role that a marketing function can play in ensuring data customers have a clear understanding of how a data product helps deliver a specific business outcome. Given Saleem’s role is primarily as a Chief Product Officer (CPO), it should be no surprise that he won’t discuss data quality, data governance, data pipelines or anything else deeply focused on data management. Instead, he focuses on several best practices and actionable insights for how to approach the role of a CDO should you wish to ensure stakeholder value remains at the core of everything you do.