Data Champion Program

Maintained by:

Overview

The Data Champion Program is a modern solution to develop Data Acumen and Data Capabilities across an organization with existing team members. As opposed to relying on a central Data Team for all data needs, the Data Champion Program uses an inside-out and train-the-trainer approach to develop Data from within functional teams, leveraging expertise, content, and programs created by central Data Team experts.

The goals of the Data Champion Program include:

Leveraging Data as a key company asset and helping everyone make their best decisions with data
Creating a path for functional teams to become Data self-sufficient, including Self-Service Dashboard development and SQL Analysis
Accelerating the adoption of data-driven techniques and approaches
Improving Data Quality and Data Accountability
Helping to grow an active Data community

Approach

The Data Champion approach identifies one individual in each functional team to serve as (a) the Data DRI for their team and (b) as a stable counterpart to the Data Team. Data Team leadership and the Data Champion collaboratively develop a Data Success Plan to define vision, responsibilities, and objectives, taking into consideration the functional team's unique data needs, aptitudes, and existing data acumen. Among other things, the Plan establishes a training schedule covering GitLab Data Assets (reports, dashboards, data models), Self-Service Capabilities, and the Data Roadmap. To help develop Data Acumen within their team, the Data Champion has a responsibility to promote data practices through a local Data competency center.

graph TD A[Data Team] <--enables--> B[Data Champion] B[Functional Data Champion] <--enables--> C[Functional Team Members]

Data Champion Responsibilities

Develop a Data Success Plan in coordination with the Data Team
Serve as Data DRI for their functional team, capturing all Data requests, including Data Quality problems
Prioritize and stack-rank Data Issues and Epics, ensuring the Data Issue Board remains up-to-date
Communicate priorities to the Data Team through the Issue Board
Develop a Data handbook page geared to their functional team audience, such as Data For Product Managers
Regularly communicate and cascade data news and practices
Helps to improve Data Quality in source systems
Watch changes in source systems and help incorporate necessary updates in the Enterprise Data Warehouse

Requirements

Devote 1-2 hours per week to the program, flexing time as initiatives develop
Commitment to developing personal and team Data competencies
Intermediate SQL experience
Data Visualization experience
Data Modeling experience; Zuora Example, Salesforce Example

Program Target

Area	Current State	Target State
Data Prioritization for Functional Team	Data Team	Data Champion, supported with Value Calculator
Data Issue Board for Functional Team	Data Team	Data Champion & Data Team maintain
Data DRI for Functional Team	Does Not Exist	Data Champion acts as Data DRI for their Functional Team
Data for Functional Team Handbook	No page exists	Data Champion and Data Team maintain
Communicate Data News to Functional Team	No regular communication	Data Champion regularly attends Data Team meetings and passes relevant news to Functional Team
Sisense Training	Online Tutorials & periodic Live Training by Data Team	Data Champion customizes for Functional Team and provides required training
Data Collection and Processing	Data Team manages all Handbook documentation and helps to update dbt documentation	Data Champion stays up-to-date in source system quality and model changes and communicates necessary updates to Data Team for implementation, including helping to maintain handbook
Data Privacy and Protection	Data, Legal, Security, and Compliance teams responsible for privacy review	Data Champion helps Data, Legal, Security, and Compliance teams to understand data elements which may require privacy assessment and helps maintain appropriate documentation