The data product lifecycle

Data products play a crucial role in transforming how organizations leverage data, aligning closely with the concept of a data mesh, which focuses on decentralized data management to maximize business value. The lifecycle of a data product starts with the data product manager aligning these products with business goals, followed by a series of stages that include building, maintaining, and retiring data products. Unlike traditional data management approaches, data products require versioning, sharing, and applying product management disciplines to ensure their relevance and utility. A data product combines deep data knowledge with domain expertise and is defined by attributes like discoverability, security, and interoperability. The integration of a metadata plane and reusable frameworks enhances the management and scalability of data products, while DataOps practices ensure automation and observability throughout the process. Financial services and other regulatory industries are particularly poised to benefit from data products due to their complex data needs, and partnerships like that of Starburst and Deloitte are helping organizations derive greater value from their data investments by utilizing data products.