Unifying Business, Data, and Code

Chapter 4. Concept-First Design for Data Products

In this chapter, you will learn a new and straightforward definition of a data product, described across four facets. You’ll also discover a method called concept-first design for crafting data products and understand their relationship to schemas.

Concept-first design is an effective strategy that seamlessly bridges the communication gap between nontechnical business teams and technical teams. It employs universally understood tools, such as diagrams and spreadsheets, to represent ideas and challenges.

The beauty of concept-first design lies in its simplicity. One translates business language or logic into a hierarchical format, akin to how JSON and JSON Schema operate—these are digital languages that machines comprehend. By using concept-first design, the effort to convert business logic into code is reduced. This minimizes the errors and inefficiencies often arising when developers and data stewards make assumptions during concept modeling.

Imagine a data product as a box containing a single tool, complete with everything a user needs to accomplish a task. Think of buying a friend an electronic gift. If the gift lacks a battery or instructions, it leaves your friend scrambling to find missing pieces—a frustrating experience. This is precisely how you must think about data products. A data product should be a comprehensive package, providing users with everything they need to utilize the data effectively. The goal is to avoid ...