Here are several quotes from “Data Mesh: Delivering Data-Driven Value at Scale” by Zhamak Dehghani that collectively explain the concept of “Data as a Product”:
- On Treating Data as a Product: “In Data Mesh, data is treated as a product, with a clear focus on the needs of the data consumers, ensuring that data is high quality, trustworthy, and easily accessible.”
- On Ownership and Responsibility: “Data as a product means that data is owned by cross-functional domain teams who are responsible for its quality, lifecycle, and delivery, just as they would be for any other product they manage.”
- On Data Product Management: “Managing data as a product involves defining clear SLAs (Service Level Agreements), SLOs (Service Level Objectives), and ensuring continuous improvement based on consumer feedback and usage metrics.”
- On Data Product Attributes: “A data product must be discoverable, addressable, trustworthy, self-describing, inter-operable, and secure. These attributes ensure that the data can be effectively utilized by its consumers.”
- On Consumer-Centric Design: “Designing data as a product shifts the focus to a consumer-centric approach, where understanding the needs and use cases of data consumers drives the creation and management of data products.”
- On Value Creation: “Treating data as a product emphasizes the value creation aspect, ensuring that data provides actionable insights and drives decision-making processes within the organization.”
Data as a product in the Data Mesh framework means treating data with a consumer-centric approach, ensuring it is high quality, trustworthy, and easily accessible. It involves clear ownership by cross-functional domain teams responsible for its lifecycle and continuous improvement based on consumer feedback. Key attributes include being discoverable, addressable, self-describing, interoperable, and secure, with the ultimate goal of providing actionable insights and driving value creation.