#98 How to Nail Your Data Mesh Vendor Assessment: A Journey Story - Interview w/ Jen Tedrow

Sign up for Data Mesh Understanding's free roundtable and introduction programs here: https://landing.datameshunderstanding.com/Please Rate and Review us on your podcast app of choice!If you want to be a guest or give feedback (suggestions for topics, comments, etc.), please see hereEpisode list and links to all available episode transcripts here.Provided as a free resource by Data Mesh Understanding / Scott Hirleman. Get in touch with Scott on LinkedIn if you want to chat data mesh.Transcript for this episode (link) provided by Starburst. See their Data Mesh Summit recordings here and their great data mesh resource center here.Jen's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jentedrow/In this episode, Scott interviewed Jen Tedrow, a Product Management Consultant at Pathfinder Product Labs who is currently working with a large client on a data mesh implementation. She was only representing her own perspective in this episode.Some key takeaways/thoughts from Jen's point of view from the conversation:A data mesh vendor assessment is likely to be different than almost any other vendor assessment you've done before, especially if you aren't evolving something existing. There is so much more to cover and the overall platform needs to meet your needs, integrate with how you handle data on the application side including integrations, comply with your governance standards, fit within budget, etc. That's a lot of needles to thread.Spend considerably more time doing the discovery process in your data mesh vendor assessment than you would for a normal vendor assessment. There are a lot of potentially hidden needs / wants and it is far better to surface them early.By digging deep into stakeholders' desired outcomes, you can understand what you need to deliver but also, you can get insight into driving buy-in. Address the challenges preventing them from the desired outcomes and they will feel seen and heard.As many guests have said, lead with empathy. Change is painful. But if you are realistic with people and make them feel seen and heard, it will be much less painful.When speaking with potential users, again really spend the time to make them feel seen and heard - reflect back to them what you heard. And have them share what is their ideal state. You may not be able to fully deliver on it but it's important to understand where they want to go.As you are learning new information, share that in a continuous stream with stakeholders so they understand the recommendations you are making along the way and at the "end" of the assessment - it doesn't really end when you finish the assessment, so "end".Be prepared for there to be capability gaps - possibly significant - between what you want now and what is available in the market or that you are able to build in your budget. There are just a number of...