189: Customer Data Modeling, The Data Warehouse, Reverse ETL, and Data Activation with Ryan McCrary of RudderStack

This week on The Data Stack Show, Eric and John chat with Ryan McCrary, Product Manager at Rudderstack. During the episode, the group explores the complexities of customer data management, focusing on data activation, identity resolution, and entity management. They also discuss Rudderstack's profiles product, which aims to bring business users closer to data, making it actionable within their existing tools. The episode covers the challenges of stitching user profiles deterministically, handling anomalies, and the significance of reverse ETL in the data industry. They also touch on the importance of data ownership, visibility between teams, and the role of machine learning in building a data foundation. Overall, the conversation sheds light on the evolving landscape of data management and the need for structured, collaborative tools in the space.

Highlights from this week’s conversation include:

• Ryan's Background and Roles in Data (0:05)

• Data Activation and Dashboard Staleness (1:27)

• Profiles and Data Activation (2:54)

• Customer-Facing Experience and Product Management (3:40)

• Profiles Product Overview (5:10)

• Use Cases for Profiles (6:44)

• Challenges with Data Projects (9:19)

• Entity Management and Account Views (15:33)

• Handling Entities and Duplicates (17:55)

• Challenges in Entity Management (22:18)

• Product Management and Data Solutions (26:08)

• Reverse ETL and Data Movement (31:58)

• Accessibility of Data Warehouses (36:14)

• Profiles and Entity Features (37:47)

• Cohorts Creation and Use Cases (41:17)

• Customer Data and Targeting (43:09)

• Activations and Reverse ETL (45:57)

• ML and AI Use Cases (55:53)

• Data Activation and ML Predictions (57:02)

• Spicy Take and Future Product Features (59:47)

• ETL Evolution and Cloud Tools (1:00:50)

• Unbundling and Future Trends (1:02:10)

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.