From kitchen to catalog: applying the chef’s discipline to data products

Data product thinking isn’t rocket science, it’s about applying clear principles to deliver sustainable and high-quality data solutions. Whether you’re part of a small company just beginning to explore the potential of data or a large, complex organization managing data across multiple departments, data product thinking provides the structure and scalability you need.

Like a chef, data product owners follow a lifecycle: planning the recipe, sourcing the best ingredients, crafting the dish, and—most importantly—monitoring its quality to delight diners. This approach ensures that each data product is findable, accessible, interoperable, reusable, and trustworthy (FAIR-T).

But when you scale up to a professional kitchen with multiple dishes (data products), strategy becomes the guiding force. Just as a restaurant’s menu aligns with its theme and vision, an organization’s data products must align with its business objectives. Collaboration between chefs (data product owners) ensures consistency, while governance and processes act as the rules of the kitchen: maintaining quality, minimizing waste, and ensuring each dish complements the overall menu.

This talk will move beyond the metaphor to provide actionable insights. You’ll learn how to implement the principles of data product thinking, tackle common challenges in scaling, and embed governance seamlessly into your workflows. Whether you’re refining one dish or managing an entire menu, discover how applying the chef’s discipline can empower your organization to create impactful, reliable, and scalable data products.