CDOs highlight the need for adopting data-as-a-product principles

As part of the U.S. government’s Federal Data Strategy, agencies are working hard to transform data insights into action and make data more accessible and valuable to a broader circle of users.

For chief data officers and IT leaders, that involves taking numerous steps to advance the collection and management of data and transform data into more valuable products for their constituents and stakeholders

In a recent FedScoop interview, Beth Puchek,chief data officer for the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, discusses some best data management practices and how they can propel missions forward or, in their absence, hold missions back.

“USCIS data is everybody’s job; nobody owns it. The most important thing we can do is to promote that mindset and to help everyone understand the importance of sharing data across our domains across our lines of business,” she says.

“One of the ways we’ve seen to solidify that in people’s minds is through the use of an enterprise data strategy. Four years ago, we published our first data strategy. And it’s a great opportunity for us to all collectively synchronize around the data management challenges that we have and the ultimate vision for utilizing our data as an asset collectively,” she adds.

ICF Digital Modernization Chief Data Officer Joshua Phillips says, “it’s important to consider data a mission-critical product in its own right, rather than to think of only the reports, visualizations, or tools that use that data. That product thinking helps ensure that the proper attention to data quality and interoperability is applied and maintained over time.”

He also highlights technology solutions that support data access, like event-based streaming, bulk transfer mechanisms and federated data lakes. “With these data-as-a-product principles and modern data access mechanisms, agencies can more readily meet mission objectives.”

Puchek and Phillips also explore where the cloud helps to create and scale a cohesive data management environment that supports a wide range of data workloads.

Watch the interview to hear how to navigate a data-driven ecosystem.

Learn more about unlocking data as a strategic asset here.

This video panel discussion was produced by Scoop News Group and FedScoop and underwritten by ICF.