190: Aligning Data Teams and Data Tools With Business Needs Featuring Ben Rogojan, the Seattle Data Guy

This week on The Data Stack Show, Eric and John chat with Ben Rogojan, Owner and Data Consultant at Seattle Data Guy. During the episode, Ben discusses the complexities of budgeting for data teams within organizations. The group explores various funding models, including chargebacks and independent budgets, and considers the implications of each on the perception and effectiveness of data teams. The conversation highlights the potential for unhealthy budgeting practices, such as investing in new systems without clear business benefits, which can lead to financial difficulties for companies. The role of the CFO and the importance of aligning data team budgets with organizational goals are also examined, emphasizing the need for strategic investment in data capabilities to support business outcomes. Don’t miss this data discussion!

Highlights from this week’s conversation include:

• Ben’s background and journey in data (0:18)

• Relating data to business outcomes (2:33)

• Facebook's approach to data-driven business outcomes (4:43)

• Subjectivity and data-driven business outcomes (8:43)

• Infrastructure and data collection at Facebook (12:04)

• The importance of first-party data and the death of third-party cookies (16:27)

• Facebook's Data and Attribution Challenges (20:08)

• Facebook's Infrastructure and Tooling (23:41)

• Differences in Data Approaches (28:26)

• Challenges of Data Project Alignment with Business Outcomes (32:58)

• Integration of Data into Tools and Partnerships (35:12)

• Building Alliances with Embedded Data Analysts (38:08)

• Budgeting for Data Teams (40:02)

• Healthy Team Dynamics and Budgeting (44:18)

• Data Team Reporting Structure (46:23)

• Connecting with Ben and More Content (50:55)

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.