Data Synthesist is now Deliberate Data Culture

New name, same data culture content

If you ask me to name my professional strengths, information synthesis is usually at the top of my list. I love taking disparate information and building a larger framework around it to help others understand it all better, faster, and easier.¹

When I set out to start writing this newsletter, it was both exciting and scary. Exciting, because I had (and still have!) a lot that I wanted to write about. Scary, because that overarching framework that connected my writing wasn't clear to me in the early days. So instead, I stepped out of my comfort zone and just started writing, one topic at a time. Because a newsletter needs a name, I borrowed from my strength to land on Data Synthesist.

In the months since, some posts have flown effortlessly. Others, not as much, sometimes taking many iterations before they felt right. As I reflect on all the posts so far, a trend has emerged among the ones I feel strongest about — which happen to also be the ones with the most views and engagement. They aren't talking about information synthesis. However, they do usually center another topic: Data culture.

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Introducing Deliberate Data Culture

So today I'm building on that learning and rolling out a new name for this newsletter. Deliberate Data Culture better reflects the content I’m passionate about, and has an intentional double meaning:

Deliberate as adjective

Gartner's annual CDAO survey regularly cites a figure that most data leaders feel their teams aren't effectively providing value to the organization. A common reason? The lack of a strong, data-driven culture.

The thing is, corporate data culture doesn't just happen. It's the amalgamation of everyone's standard operating procedures around making decisions with — or without — data. And those procedures can be understood and evolved. Data leaders just need to be deliberate about driving that change as part of their jobs.

And that leads in to the second meaning...

Deliberate as verb

The new title is also a call to action for data leaders of all disciplines to invest more in their data culture — independently and collectively, at all levels of the organization.

One of the biggest shifts for me, moving from UX Research to Data Science, was how much team efficacy and data culture was discussed. With UX Research it sometimes felt like too much. Many teams and conferences dedicate a chunk of their time to reflecting on this topic. But when I switched to Data Science, it felt like the pendulum swung to the other end. Yes, there are leaders who discuss it, but more often the topic of choice is, understandably, the rapidly-evolving technical aspects of the work.

My one wish is for these two groups to meet in the middle. If you're a Data Science leader with a UX Research leader in your orbit or vice versa, you should meet regularly to deliberate data culture. The shared understanding that emerges will be a strong foundation for the rest of the company to build on. Hopefully this newsletter gives you some food for thought to prime those conversations.

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Some housekeeping before I wrap up: Any old links to Data Synthesist should still work. So if you're saving an old email for quick access to an old post, that's still supported. If you hit any snags, please do let me know.

1. You may have picked up on this with how often I drop a framework in my posts. 😅