Snowflake’s New Principal Data Strategist

Happy anniversary to me. I just celebrated my first month at Snowflake and am admittedly still finding my way around. I’ve spent most of the past month meeting colleagues, learning about products, and getting more and more excited about the opportunities Snowflake provides to its customers and partners.

Allow me to introduce myself. My official title is Principal Data Strategist at Snowflake, but I am also a Data Economy Evangelist, a Data Literacy Advocate, and a Former Forrester Analyst. I spent the last 12 years researching and writing about the data economy and what it takes to benefit from it. I’m interested in data leadership and the evolving role of Chief Data Officers. I firmly believe that data literacy should be part of early education and onboarding in any job, regardless of role or responsibility. Everyone touches data — either capturing it, protecting it, or using it. I am passionate about the opportunities to apply data for good and convinced that the power of data is positive. Not naively so, however.

How did I get to Snowflake, you ask? Well, the journey started before Snowflake itself. I’ve been a data person since college. Then earlier in my career at Forrester, as I wrote about smart cities, I focused on the need for new business models. My report Getting Clever About Smart Cities Requires New Business Models argued that data monetization offered a revenue-generating model for cities. That was somewhat controversial at the time, although government agencies did — and still do — charge for data services. For example, Findata offers data services with prices including permit fees, processing costs, and access to secure environments. But I digress.

Over the years, my research at Forrester shifted more to the data economy as I explored how companies were using open data to fuel innovation and jump-start new businesses. For a trip down memory lane, look at the blogs Open Data Is Not Just For Governments Anymore and External Data (And Open Data) Transforms Business.

My research covered most aspects of the evolving and now exploding data economy. I looked at both supply and demand with research on best practices for sourcing data in Hunting For Fresh Insight? Arm Yourself With Our New Guide To Data Sourcing as well as how to take your data to market in Data Commercialization: The CIOs Guide To Taking Data To Market.

I have often been asked the question, “What’s my data worth?” And my immediate (and somewhat provocative) response is “Nothing!” In the words of Thomas Edison, “The value of an idea lies in the using of it.” The same goes for data.

Then, as part of my research on the data economy, I explored the emergence of data marketplaces. And, the love affair with Snowflake began. I advised aspiring “data hunters” looking to source external data that most marketplaces were immature. However, Snowflake stood out — not only because of the massive venture capital that had been invested at the time. Snowflake just made it easy to exchange and access data. I was smitten.

Now fast forward a few years, and here I am. I’m thrilled to be helping our customers leverage the Snowflake Data Cloud to accelerate their insights-driven journey.

Stay tuned for more observations, and join us at the upcoming Snowflake Summit 2021 to learn more.