Driving Knowledge Belief, High quality, and Governance with Atlan
The Lively Metadata Pioneers collection options Atlan clients who’ve accomplished an intensive analysis of the Lively Metadata Administration market. Paying ahead what you’ve realized to the subsequent information chief is the true spirit of the Atlan group! In order that they’re right here to share their hard-earned perspective on an evolving market, what makes up their fashionable information stack, modern use circumstances for metadata, and extra.
On this installment of the collection, we meet Kenza Zanzouri, Technical Governance Knowledgeable at Contentsquare, a number one digital expertise analytics platform that gives wealthy context and insights into habits, emotions, and intent at every touchpoint in a buyer journey for over 1.3 million web sites and purposes. Kenza shares the historical past of Knowledge Governance at Contentsquare, from its inception years in the past, to utilizing Atlan to help each BI deliverable, drive enterprise possession, and enhance compliance.
This interview has been edited for brevity and readability.
Might you inform us a bit about your self, your background, and what drew you to Knowledge & Analytics?
I began working in information about 5 years in the past. Initially, I used to be learning Political Science, however I transitioned into Knowledge Transformation throughout my Grasp’s which was a means for me to use what I realized from internships in Authorized & Compliance. I took a number of lessons on Analytics and Enterprise Intelligence, and determined to just accept an internship in Enterprise Intelligence within the luxurious style business.
While you’re engaged on Enterprise Intelligence, you get to the touch a little bit of every part about information, together with metadata and documentation, understanding how information flows and the programs concerned, and structure. That’s once I realized that I didn’t actually like constructing deliverables for Enterprise Intelligence, however I did love all of the Knowledge Governance round it. It was an awesome alternative for somebody younger and junior within the business to be taught, understanding folks in each technical and enterprise groups.
Then, I used to be employed at Contentsquare to construct the Knowledge Governance crew. Again then, Knowledge Governance sat throughout the BI crew, and that was an effective way to incubate the perform, as a result of we had been already part of the crew that understood the enterprise. Our concept was that Knowledge Governance would all the time be cross-functional, and that we’d hyperlink collectively Knowledge Engineers, BI Analysts, and the enterprise items. I realized quite a bit.
Just lately, Knowledge Governance has moved out of the BI crew and into the Info Methods Division (ISD), and that’s the place I stand as we speak. The job is wider in scope now, the place I don’t simply take a look at Knowledge Governance. We’re rebuilding a number of our programs, so we have now to grasp structure, how information flows, who owns information, and information high quality.
I’ve spent virtually three years at Contentsquare as a Technical Governance Knowledgeable. I nonetheless take care of Knowledge Governance, and I nonetheless work very intently with the BI crew.
Might you describe Contentsquare?
At present, Contentsquare is a unicorn with the surroundings of a startup, with our primary workplace in Paris, and our second-largest in New York. We’re a SaaS firm, and our primary product helps our clients perceive their guests’ habits on their web sites, and find out how they’ll enhance their buyer expertise.
We’re organized into completely different branches, in fact, like Advertising and marketing, Partnerships, R&D, Product Technique, and Individuals. ISD, the place I sit, is beneath Finance.
Contentsquare has been round for practically 12 years, and over the previous months and years, we acquired two firms, Heap and Hotjar. We’re merging these two entities into Contentsquare, and have rebuilt and restructured a number of our groups to be sure that we’re promoting a greater product sooner or later. Exterior of merging in Heap and Hotjar, we’re engaged on constructing a single CRM and a single ERP, so there’s a number of rebuilding that’s taking place.
All of this rebuilding is an enormous cause Knowledge Governance is so concerned, with everybody from the BI crew to our enterprise items, and all our folks, whether or not they’re operational or excessive within the hierarchy, are concerned. It’s a good time for folks to be right here, as a result of it’s very uncommon to witness a lot change in an organization, and it’s very uncommon to do it at this tempo.
Why seek for an Lively Metadata Administration answer? What was lacking?
I feel any firm, whether or not it’s in tech or not, understands that information is vital. You should perceive how properly your enterprise is doing, and it’s essential function properly, on the whole. However Contentsquare, like every other firm and even once I labored in Retail Style, has struggled with an absence of belief in information.
Why? As a result of, when an organization is rising, you begin to purchase increasingly instruments, groups get larger, then they break up. Individuals are inclined to function of their silos and begin to generate information, then we don’t know what’s getting used and what’s not getting used. Exterior of that, you will have Enterprise Intelligence groups which might be intervening throughout departments to be sure that no matter KPIs and deliverables they’ve are reliable and of fine high quality.
Again then, we didn’t have an Info Methods Division, so that you had a number of programs and lots of people who weren’t all the time working collectively, and no single, centralized house for info. So, two or three years in the past once we had been contemplating Atlan, we had some huge questions round how the crew might ship dashboards, extractions, or KPIs, once we weren’t actually certain about our formulation, the place information was coming from, or who owned it.
There have been some circumstances the place there wasn’t an knowledgeable to ask a few system, and the enterprise had purchased a product that didn’t get good adoption, however contained nice information. We wished to make use of that information, however weren’t certain what we had been utilizing or the place it got here from.
In order that’s the place Knowledge Governance got here in, and that’s once I arrived with my supervisor to construct our crew.
However inside Knowledge Governance, you want Lively Metadata, you want a technique to drive possession, it’s essential perceive your information, and also you want a system to centralize all that work. That’s once we had discussions round what device we wished to make use of, and Atlan was probably the greatest in the marketplace.
We wished one thing that may very well be utilized by anybody. It was crucial to us that we didn’t use one thing too technical, as a result of the extra technical the device is, the much less doubtless it’s that the enterprise will use it, and that’s not the path we wished to take. We didn’t need to assume that solely Knowledge Engineers and BI Analysts would use it.
We would have liked one thing that might be user-friendly, would get nice adoption, and had an awesome Buyer Success and Help crew. So, we had a number of demos again then, and selected Atlan as the perfect one.
Might you describe Contentsquare’s journey with Atlan, up to now?
Again then, I feel we wished to implement Atlan too quick, which was good in some methods, however we weren’t able to get all 1,500 folks at Contentsquare to undertake it. We would have liked to have one thing priceless in Atlan that individuals could be inquisitive about so we’d keep away from pushback from our enterprise items.
So, our greatest crew for adoption was the BI crew, the place all of their deliverables are actually supported by Atlan. I consider that’s the easiest way to get the enterprise to undertake. It may be exhausting for the enterprise to undertake a brand new device, but it surely’s a lot simpler once they have already got a means of working with technical folks, who’re already utilizing Atlan.
I feel our Knowledge Governance crew grew and advanced, and Atlan grew and advanced alongside us. There’s a number of change. Proper now, our precedence is rebuilding our structure and programs and issues are in a little bit of a pause, however Atlan continues to be used for lots of foundational work. If there are new KPIs or updates to our reporting, we use Atlan.
What recommendation would you share together with your friends contemplating Atlan for Knowledge Governance?
Now that I’ve been within the firm for nearly three years, I do know our programs by coronary heart, our information domains by coronary heart, I do know everyone, and I do know the place we stand. I now perceive the enterprise doesn’t all the time know their information, and I feel we might have moved a bit slower initially of our journey to essentially perceive what information and programs had been getting used. It was all a bit extra sophisticated again then once we didn’t have an Info Methods Division.
There was a number of documentation and processes lacking again then, and we determined to skip some components of that to leap immediately into Knowledge Governance, once we might have spent a bit extra time understanding what we had and didn’t have, what we must always map, et cetera, earlier than serving to the enterprise alongside of their governance journey. That features Atlan and in addition Monte Carlo, the place programs and information change and it may be powerful to make sure of what information high quality guidelines to make use of.
I feel the recommendation for myself, if I might return, could be to take extra time understanding the structure, the plan, and our information stack, and to spend extra time with the enterprise. Even when the product is nice, there are nonetheless individuals who could have a tough time stopping what they’re doing to rebuild and transfer ahead in a greater means.
My second piece of recommendation, and I feel I’m a bit divided on this, but it surely’s to each “maintain the hand” of the enterprise items, and in addition attempt to make them extra accountable. As a result of we had been a brand new crew, Knowledge Governance was new, and we wished to do nice issues, we did an excessive amount of for the enterprise and so they had been anticipating quite a bit from me and the crew. So, they by no means felt accountable sufficient for his or her information.
To me, information is owned by the enterprise. The programs might be owned by a central crew, however information should be owned by the enterprise, as a result of on the finish of the day, they’re answerable for who ought to have entry to it, the way it needs to be delivered, what it’s used for, and the way in which it’s calculated. While you’re doing an excessive amount of “hand holding”, possession is tough, and it’s going to be even slower to maneuver ahead.
Usually, I consider in taking it gradual. Knowledge Governance means a lot and nothing on the similar time. There’s quite a bit concerned, and also you’re higher off splitting the work and never attempting to do all of it on the similar time. You’ll be able to’t be working in your information, implementing a Knowledge Catalog, engaged on Knowledge High quality, and managing compliance all on the similar time. It’s not potential.
Lastly, Compliance needs to be an enormous precedence. I feel that is too simply put apart, when it needs to be one of many huge arguments for why everybody needs to be utilizing an information catalog. I feel a number of firms are inclined to put that apart, considering they’re tech-savvy and that information is a site of experience, however tomorrow, when you’re audited, it’s going to be crucial.
That’s one of many causes I attempt to push Knowledge Governance as a lot as potential, not simply by the enterprise, however by something that’s associated to R&D and Product groups. Contentsquare did a number of work on this, and I’m very completely satisfied we’ve been in a position to make folks answerable for Compliance in every division. We had Knowledge Compliance Ambassadors that labored immediately with me and the authorized crew to work on that particular department of governance.
On the time, instruments like Atlan had been nice to have, as a result of it made issues simpler to begin someplace, to see our information, and to flag it. It’s one of many issues I’ve actually preferred about Atlan.
Photograph by Jason Goodman on Unsplash