188: How To Invest in Data Infrastructure and Data Projects That Create Business Value with Matthew Kelliher-Gibson of Rudderstack

This week on The Data Stack Show, Eric and John chat with Matthew Kelliher-Gibson, Technical Product Marketing Manager at Rudderstack. During the episode, Matthew shares his extensive background in data and data science. With over a decade of experience across various industries, Matthew discusses his transition from analyst to managing data science teams and his journey through political campaigns to an MBA focused on business analytics. The group explores the challenges of purchasing data tools, emphasizing the need to drive business value by cutting costs and increasing revenue. They also discuss strategies for working with business users to prioritize company needs and build trust, personal productivity tools, managing tasks and knowledge, and more.

Highlights from this week’s conversation include:

• Matt KG’s Background in Data (0:35)

• Challenges in purchasing data tools (1:28)

• Early experiences in data analysis (9:51)

• Matt’s Transition to a subprime auto loan company (13:19

• Transition to RudderStack and software purchase decisions (17:36)

• Tech Problems: People and Process (22:02)

• Challenges in Purchasing Data Tools (22:55)

• Budget Constraints and Purchasing Decisions (24:46)

• Challenges with Platform Documentation (26:55)

• Metrics and Cost Efficiency (30:11)

• Risk and Conviction in Purchasing Decisions (32:53)

• Justification and Value Creation (38:17)

• Connecting Data to Business Value (42:03)

• Navigating Business Relationships (46:25)

• Empowering Analysts (49:54)

• Relational Capital and Team Competency (51:29)

• Final thoughts and takeaways (54:16)

The Data Stack Show is a weekly podcast powered by RudderStack, the CDP for developers. Each week we’ll talk to data engineers, analysts, and data scientists about their experience around building and maintaining data infrastructure, delivering data and data products, and driving better outcomes across their businesses with data.

RudderStack helps businesses make the most out of their customer data while ensuring data privacy and security. To learn more about RudderStack visit rudderstack.com.