A practical manifesto

The 10 commandments of treating data as a product.

Ten principles to help teams move from delivering data to building products people use, trust and value.

  1. 01

    Start with the user

    Know who will use the product, what they are trying to achieve, and what gets in their way.

  2. 02

    Solve a real problem

    Begin with a valuable problem, not an interesting dataset or a new piece of technology.

  3. 03

    GIVE IT AN OUTCOME

    Success is changed behaviour and improved results not dashboards shipped, pipelines built or features released.

  4. 04

    Make ownership explicit

    Give one empowered owner and team responsibility for the product, its choices and its results.

  5. 05

    Discover before you deliver

    Test assumptions with users before committing time and money to building the solution.

  6. 06

    PROACTIVE DISCOVERY

    Discovery should be an always on actively that is supported and encouraged. 

  7. 07

    START WITH AN MVP

    Choose the smallest valuable outcome first. A longer backlog is not a better strategy.

  8. 08

    MAKE IT DISCOVERABLE

    Once you have built something you need to drive hard to ensure it is used. It must be discoverable and you should market it.

  9. 09

    GET FEEDBACK OFTEN AND EARLY

    Observe use, gather feedback, iterate and evolve the product as needs and evidence change.

  10. 10

    Retire what no longer serves

    Products have lifecycles. Remove what is unused, duplicated or no longer creates enough value. Improve, Maintain or Retire.

Don’t just manage the data. Manage the product.