How To Make A Sandwich in 587 Steps - Issue 208
Or why Customer Data Platform may not be the solution you need.
Welcome to my Data Analytics Journal, where I write about data science and analytics.
“A few years ago, this company decided that it wanted to create an analytics platform, following the decision to become more "data driven". They hired some incredibly talented people to make this happen, and then like five times as many idiots… they hired a bunch of Big Firm Consultants. You can see where this is going already…
We were told that we just had to wait for the Advanced Analytics Platform (AAP) to be deployed. You see, it's December, and it's launching in January.
Then in January I was told to be patient, it was coming in March.
In June, I was told it had been put on hold due to Covid… We skip ahead three years. The AAP is finally ready to launch…
It's an insane dumpster fire spiderweb of technical debt and it's only like one week old.”
From Ludicity.
Sounds familiar?
This is a controversial POV, but when I hear requests for "Analytics Platform", "Business Data Platform", or "Customer Data Platform", I suspect I am dealing with analytics leadership of low quality who lack experience with analytics at scale, have never stitched users together across multiple sources, and haven’t worked with mapping third-party and first-party data together. As a result, I believe nothing good will come from it because the world is flooded with stories of leadership failures like these, and I can personally add a few more.
As you might have guessed, today I will discuss a popular yet painful topic: the Customer Data Platform.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Data Analysis Journal to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.