VIDEO | SteamPunk Civic Tech Service Designer: Data Governance Is a Top-Down Effort

(US and Canada) Lauren Maffeo, Civic Tech Service Designer at SteamPunk, speaks with Robert Lutton, Vice President of Sandhill Consultants and Editorial Board Vice Chair at CDO Magazine, in a video interview about her career, her first book “Designing Data Governance from the Ground Up,” and data governance misconceptions.

Originally a journalist covering technology, Maffeo moved into content marketing before she became a Gartner research analyst focused on business intelligence. Her interest in artificial intelligence and her experience covering a wide range of cloud software segments inspired her book.

She realized the AI narrative needed to be more accurate, that large quantities of data powered AI technologies. In addition, her research showed that most organizations need more data governance at the most basic levels and have low data maturity, preventing leaders from investing in advanced AI technologies. Maffeo adds that the continuous trend of low data maturity prompted her to write the book. Having worked as a service designer, she believes that data governance is not only a cultural challenge but a design problem, too. A design approach, according to Maffeo, helps organizations solve those problems.

Maffeo explains that understanding what organizations want their data to accomplish and how it can be used is the most important part of data governance. When asked about the common misconceptions about data governance, Maffeo highlights the following:

• Governance is viewed as a standalone entity divorced from the rest of an organization’s efforts. However, it is a top-down effort, and businesses should start with governance and standards to guide the rest of the project.
• Governance is viewed as an everything-and-nothing endeavor, meaning everyone owns it and, therefore, no one owns it. But data governance should be a shared effort across technical and nontechnical stewards.
• People believe data governance is something new. In reality, most organizations already do governance without realizing and formalizing it.

CDO Magazine appreciates Lauren Maffeo for sharing her insights and data success stories with our global community.