(US & Canada) | We’re Building Data Governance Culture from an Educational Standpoint — Burn Boot Camp VP of Technology

Ashwin Ratan, VP of Technology at Burn Boot Camp, speaks with Geoffrey Speare, Director of Data Architecture and Engineering Practice at Ironside, in a video interview about the organizational data analytics maturity curve, strategic plans for 2024, lessons learned on data and governance, understanding business needs and staying aligned with stakeholders, and possibilities enabled by AI.

Burn Boot Camp is a global fitness community that offers challenging 45-minute workouts and nutritional support.

Shedding light on the organizational data analytics maturity curve, Ratan states that Burn Boot Camp is a data-driven company. In 2024, he aims to serve the business from an analytical perspective and build out the journey to get to a maturity level from a data analytics standpoint.

Speaking of the next step, Ratan mentions circling back to the initial reports and use cases laid out during building the business architecture project and assessing their validity. Since the foundational roadmap exists and the organization has the data that went into the business architecture project, he proposes to start that conversation afresh if the past use cases are not relevant in 2024.

Stating his opinion on balancing between building reports on existing data and bringing in new data sources, Ratan maintains that it depends on the business requirement. However, it requires a combined effort between the business, technology, and operational people to get together to understand the value concepts.

One takeaway piece of advice from Ratan after working on the business architecture project is to be humble, kind, and open-minded. He says that people bring great perspectives, and it is critical to give importance to that. The technical lesson Ratan learned was on the BI side while working with Ironside on building the architecture.

When asked about the lessons learned about data, Ratan states that governance is the key for him. It boils down to educating people in terms of how the data is governed, irrespective of what technology is deployed.

Therefore, the organization is focused on building the data governance culture from an educational standpoint, and it is always a learning curve, says Ratan. At Burn Boot Camp, the critical aspect of governance includes standardizing the data, and the company is looking to build out a true governance model in 2024.

Ratan is invested in educating the word governance and socializing it from a maturity perspective on what it truly means, who owns it, and what skill sets are needed from a business technology operational standpoint.

Delving further, he states that governance can be defined depending on how big or small the scope is. When it comes to pushing the governance boundary, Burn Boot Camp also assesses the scope from a reporting standpoint.

Adding on, Ratan notes that the aim is to scale the technology organization quickly, depending on the scope of the deliverables. While there will be audits and bumpy roads, he hopes to have Ironside’s support to handle the challenges.

Moving forward, Ratan states that the current roadmap could change as the business is evolving, and it is crucial to be flexible, and people should understand the business needs to accomplish them. To stay aligned with business stakeholders through their changing needs and processes, he mentions having regular cadence conversations and understanding what goes on behind the scenes.

In conclusion, Ratan shares that he is educating himself about AI, although it comes with a lot of noise. He is intrigued by the possibilities of AI across industries worldwide and is fascinated by its evolution.

CDO Magazine appreciates Ashwin Ratan for sharing his insights with our global data community.