Mindful Data Strategy: From Pipelines to Business Impact

​Using Zen Principles to Bridge Technical Excellence and Strategic Outcomes - Lior Barak

​Despite 97% of organizations investing in data, only 24% of executives feel truly data-driven. Too often, data teams build impressive pipelines and dashboards that never connect back to business results.
​In this podcast episode, Lior Barak, Data Zen Master and author of Data Is Like Hummus, shares how ancient Zen principles, paired with modern data strategy frameworks, can help teams close the gap between technical effort and business impact.

​What we plan to cover:

• ​The Data Strategy Triangle: How to balance maintenance, innovation, and rollout, and align your work with long-term organizational goals.
• ​Executive KPIs that Matter: The two metrics every data team should track to tie technical output to revenue growth, cost reduction, or retention.
• ​Wabi-Sabi for Data Products: How embracing imperfection and transparency builds trust faster than chasing unattainable “perfect” data.
• ​The Data Team Stress Index: A tool to prioritize work, anticipate burnout, and make strategic decisions about tooling and staffing as your team grows.

​About the speaker:

​Lior Barak is an independent data strategy consultant and former hands-on practitioner. He’s helped organizations in tech, finance, and healthcare evolve from reactive firefighting to sustainable, high-impact data practices.

​He’s also the creator of:

• ​The Data Ecosystem Vision Board: a visual planning tool for aligning data efforts across teams
• ​The Data Product Lifecycle Manager: a framework for tracking ROI across a data product’s entire lifespan

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Lior also writes Cooking Data, a newsletter that pairs mindful data strategy with nourishing, practical advice. As he says: “Data is like hummus: it should be simple and nourishing.”

**Join our slack: https://datatalks.club/slack.html**​