Profile of a Data Prep Professional
Are you the go to person for data in your team/organization?
Are you known for your ability to work with data from both structured and unstructured sources?
Are you known for your knowledge of trustworthy data sources across your enterprise?
When it comes to deriving insight from data does your name consistently come up in conversation?
If this describes you then you may be a Data Prep Professional. In this blog post I want to present you with the profile of a Data Prep Professional. Now to be clear, this is not the same as someone with Data Prep Skills, but instead a dedicated professional in the realm of Data Prep.
For example, Accountants, Medical Billing Associates, Human Resource Analysts, Credit Risk Analyst etc, are all professionals that can benefit from acquiring Data Prep Skills, and they should by leveraging a Data Prep tool. But a Data Prep Professional is an Enterprise Role that is a valuable asset to an Enterprise Information Management program. Here are a few key characteristics of such an individual;
Knowledge of Data Sources: One of the first distinguishing characteristics of a Data Prep Professional that they know where data is in an organization. Actually they have an Active & Working Knowledge of Data. They understand how data is used in context and can quickly connect the dots between business processes. Regardless of the type of data source; structured and unstructured, internal or external, on-premise or cloud, a Data Prep Professional knows where to find it, or who to ask if they don’t.
Prodigious at Data Prep: Naturally this individual must be a skilled at Data Prep. They were most likely an Excel Experts once upon a time, but they have transformed and transcended into Data Prep Maestros due to their use expert use of a Data Prep tool.
Partner with Business & IT: Finally this individual partners with the Business or IT by providing clean and ready to use data for a business objective. The most valuable part of the partnership is where the Data Prep Professional teaches, trains, and develops other self-sufficient Data Prep Professionals, or imparts Data Prep Skills to those who need it.
I believe Data Prep Professionals can be found serving at two core hierarchical capacities;
Data Prep Analyst: This is a Data Prep Professional that partners with Business Analysts, training them how to use the Data Prep tool of choice in the organization and educating them on where relevant data sets are for that business user.
Director of Data Preparation: This is a Data Prep Professional that is responsible for the Data Preparation Program at an Enterprise. They collaborate closely with Senior Business Leaders to discuss and implement Defense and Offense strategic data initiatives that will save and make the company money respectively. They work closely with IT to ensure that all the technical infrastructure is in place for access to all the right data sources, and that the Data Prep Platform is deployed with success. This individual should report to the Chief Data Officer.