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Our Journey to 2K! ✈️

7 min
|
All things Data Products, Impactful Approaches, Community Perspectives, and New
Apr 18, 2024
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Originally published on
Modern Data 101 Newsletter,
the following is a revised edition.


We're thrilled to share MD101 has hit a new milestone with a readership of over 2000 readers on substack!


We’re glad to see a diverse group from all around the world unifying under the ambition of building better data. Our global reach is now just one shy of one hundred countries across the globe and spans a vibrant spectrum of data whizzes from Data Product Managers and CDOs to Data Engineers and Architects.

It has been especially exciting to see this group grow at twice the speed we saw with our first 1000 members! So many great conversations, collaborations, and even constructive disagreements because what’s a community without some healthy opposition?

Substack Reports | MD101


With 17+ co-authors, including industry veterans like Hugo Lu, Timo Dechau, Manisha Jain, and Francesco De Cassai, and other external collaborations with over 15 data leaders so far, MD101 has been a melting pot of perspectives, innovations, and ideas on productising data and enhancing data cultures. And undoubtedly, we’ve been glad to hear what people have to say about it all.




We're actively collaborating with experts in the data space to bring different perspectives and valuable knowledge to community members. If you feel you've something the data community should know, reach out to us! Note: All submissions are vetted for quality & relevance.


📢 Features You Might Have Seen Too 👀


MD101 has been featured in 15+ publications run by prominent data leaders, including The Data Engineering Handbook by Zach Wilson, the Data Science Weekly Newsletter, and Data Gibberish by Yordan Ivanov.

We're thrilled to see data practitioners across various data communities adding their unique spins to MD101’s curated resources and archives. This journey isn’t just ours; it's been a collective effort. The community has played a massive role, guiding us at every turn to reach the right audience. Their contributions have not only spread the word but also enriched our understanding and approach.



🌎 Find us in more places now!


During this journey, we’ve also opened up ourselves to a broader community of data practitioners through dedicated channels on LinkedIn, Twitter, and most interestingly, a whole new website! We were thrilled to see how these by themselves have collectively amassed 3000+ folks within a few months from all walks of the data world!

🥘 Our Stories on Brewing Better Data


Since more data folks came together here to weave and influence our stories and curations, it was a natural choice to focus on what really made the difference and tune out everything else. We’ve dedicatedly focused on all things Data Products since, and there’s no looking back.

The experts who’ve collaborated with us, influenced our thoughts and approach, and have visibly executed data products on the frontline, have become our icons and we’ve worked to consolidate, enhance, and surface the stories of these folks to the wider community.



And when we say we’re all things data products, we really mean ALL!


  • MD101 Archives - Find product strategies that work for data, concepts, approaches, how-tos, to-dos, and more!
  • MD101 Curation - Stop the content overwhelm. Find all the top resources from the best sources, curated with time and care by subject matter experts in the community- all in one place!
  • MD101 Directory - Your go-to directory to discover top voices and experts in data products, data mesh, productised analytics & AI/ML, and more!


These were some of our most promising stories that brought us closer to this new milestone!

  1. How to Build Data Products - Design: Part 1/4 | Issue #23
  2. The Data Product Strategy - Becoming Metrics-First | Issue: #21
  3. Metrics-Focused Data Strategy with Model-First Data Products | Issue #48

Alongside the WHATs and WHYs of strategies and product approaches that work for data, we’ve also spoken significantly about the HOWs by elaborating on data developer platforms - a community-driven standard for data platforms.

The Essence of Having Your Own Data Developer Platform | Issue #9
The Essential "Personality Traits" You Need in Your Data Platform | Issue #40

Data Developer Platform as a Data Stack | Standardised interfacing with all existing tools, declarative data management, and e2e governance, orchestration, and metadata management.


The standard was launched recently as a community-influenced infrastructure guideline on platform engineering for data development: From objectives and design to capabilities and architecture standards. It soon changed shape from community-influenced to community-driven.

The incremental progress of the industry towards platform engineering as a unifying piece was presented at the Snowflake Summit this year, where the data platform was positioned as the single source of truth in the organisation’s data stack.

We believe the maturity of organizations in terms of their data platform utilization is evolving rapidly. Our research indicates a dynamic environment where data platforms are progressively diversifying their capabilities. ~ David Vellante on The Cube Research, Co-Founder @SiliconANGLE Media


Data Developer Platforms
were also presented at the Data Engineering Study where 22 Data Engineers from 5 companies looked back on the trajectory of 2023 and distilled it down to Data Developer Platforms and Platform Engineering as the natural next step for the data industry.

The industry-wide shift to Data Developer Platforms as a Stack as the “Modern” or latest Data Stack is more prominent and macro than can be perceived in microscopic hype cycles.


DDP Buzz


In essence, we are all about bringing more clarity on why and how to truly align data with tangible business value. Moving forward, we want to make this information more accessible and readable through resources and assets that work for all, be it reusable templates, handbooks, curated guides, cheat sheets, or more. We’re already working on bringing this to you, and we’ll start hosting them on moderndata101.com soon! Stay tuned👂🏻

Long way ahead! 🛣


With this milestone, we are even more certain of our vision to forge a community of data professionals eager to master the evolving landscape of modern data. Our goal is to simplify your journey, keeping you abreast and adaptable to the ever-shifting narratives in the data world.

The positive response has validated the goals we started with and helped us really understand how every voice out there is capable of positively influencing and accelerating the direction of the data industry. Join us on this journey, which is only getting better from here on! 🚀