Driven by Data | The Newsletter, Edition 68

And we are in July! These weeks are just flying by. We have a lot in store for you guys. We officially hit 15K followers this week, which is amazing and we are so grateful to each and every one of you. We are also excited to share another announcement tomorrow, a new LinkedIn Live event and lots more to come, so keep reading to find out more!

Driven by Data | The Podcast

In Episode 35, of Season 4, of Driven By Data: The Podcast, Kyle Winterbottom was joined by Rupal S., Head of Data Management at ASOS.com. They discuss how to obtain buy-in and sponsorship for data management, including ending up in Data Governance by accident, rebranding from Data Governance to Data Management, recognising that Data Management can support business goals and much more!

Listen now:

TOMORROW: Competition Winner Announcement

Tomorrow we will be announcing the winner of our Driven by Data Book Club Competition! The lucky winner will win all these amazing prizes:

📚Your AI Survival Guide by Sol Rashidi

📚Be Data Analytical by Jordan Morrow

📚Data Storytelling in Marketing by Caroline Florence

📚Data Centric Machine Learning with Python by Jonas Christensen

📗Physical copies of both editions of the Driven by Data Magazine

💫 Orbition Group merch!

Stay tuned to find out who this lucky person will be!

LinkedIn LIVE PANEL: Enterprise Data Literacy: From Planning to Impact

🎙 Join us for an insightful LinkedIn Live event on "Enterprise Data Literacy" featuring esteemed speakers from leading organisations! 🚀

🗣 Speakers:

Hannah Davies, Head of Data Culture & Excellence, Admiral Group Plc

Greg Freeman, CEO, Data Literacy Academy

Kate Jones, Head of Data Product & Strategy, Coventry Building Society

🎤 Expertly hosted by Kyle Winterbottom, CEO & Founder of Orbition Group, this dynamic panel will delve into the ins and outs of Enterprise Data Literacy, from planning to impact.

💡 What are the key steps in planning effective enterprise data literacy? What challenges arise during the implementation of data literacy initiatives? How can organisations measure the success and impact of their data literacy initiatives?

👥 Join us live for 45 minutes of engaging dialogue, insights, and actionable strategies. Plus, don't miss your chance to participate in the Q&A session, where you can interact directly with our panellists!

Register, save the date and mark your calendars for this can't-miss event!

Driven By Data: The Mentorship

Last week we officially launched Cohort 7 and what a cohort it is. It is our biggest undertaking yet, with the most applications received for a singular cohort!

We are proud to be facilitating over 200+ senior partnerships around the world, between Executive Data Leaders and up-and-coming executives!

Each is paired using our data-driven approach and expert knowledge of the market, to ensure our participants get the most out of their partnerships.

Due to popular demand, we have already opened applications for our next Cohort which will launch in November. If you missed your chance last month or if you fancy giving it a go, you can sign up here:

Have you downloaded our DBD Magazine yet?

Last month, we launched the second edition of Driven by Data Magazine. It's quite the bumper edition, and we are already brainstorming what to include in our next release. In our first edition, we featured Ranil Boteju, Group Chief Data and Analytics Officer for Lloyds Banking Group. For last month's edition, we had Michelle Gansle, Chief Data & Analytics Officer for McDonald's.

Both editions are great reads (if we do say so ourselves), so why not check them out here:

Do we need Clearer Job Titles in the D&A industry?

This week's insight blog is brought to you by Sophie Muscat

The term "Data Leader" may be confused due to the absence of uniformity in roles and titles across the Data & Analytics sector. Many people with similar job titles carry out quite varied tasks, while others with different job titles perform the exact same tasks. This inconsistency makes it difficult for internal recruitment teams to identify the correct talent for D&A roles, as they rely on keywords and key phrases without fully understanding the major differences between roles.

For example, when a company needs to fill a Data Engineering role, the talent team might struggle because titles such as Data Engineer, Big Data Engineer, Cloud Data Engineer, BI Developer, BI Engineer, Software Engineer, and Analytics Engineer can often refer to the same job but represent different roles across companies.

Within Data Leadership, titles like Head of, Director, VP, and CDO/CDAO/CAIO are common, but they encompass individuals from diverse backgrounds and skill sets. Data leaders can originate from various areas, such as business, technical fields, or other parts of the D&A ecosystem, including governance, business intelligence, engineering, architecture, analytics, machine learning, and artificial intelligence. Despite sharing the title "Data Leader," individuals may possess vastly different skill sets and experiences, making it challenging for non-D&A professionals to discern these differences.

When business leaders try to hire Data Leaders, they often find it hard to clearly define the necessary requirements. The term "Data Leader" is vague, leading to a wide range of skills being needed depending on the specific organisational context, size, scale, and maturity.

This brings up questions about whether we need more specific titles for Data Leaders. Sometimes, companies need highly technical leaders. Other times, they need someone with extensive experience across all areas of Data & Analytics. Some leaders should focus on insights and taking action, while others should concentrate on managing data. Clearer and more specific titles for Data Leaders could help organisations find the right person for their needs.

All this raises the question of whether creating more specific job titles within Data Leadership could help organisations better identify and recruit individuals with the necessary skills and expertise for specific situations. What do you think?

And of course, the data joke of the week:

Why did the data go to therapy?

Because it had too many outliers!

See you next week! 👋

Team Orbition