When legacy orgs’ data capabilities catch up

I've noticed something about when a legacy or highly regulated organization quickly "catches up" with the rest of the economy in data capabilities.

1. Velocity becomes critical

Time becomes wayyyy more finite because you have to cover more of the hierarchy in the same number of hours, so you develop means to increase your velocity.

Meaning, those smaller sorts of clean-up work that we all accept suddenly become "quickly automate this and move on; there are other things we need to do instead."

2. Portfolio slimming as non-negotiable

This should probably actually be item 1b instead of 2: you start practicing data minimalism as a philosophy. Going from small data warehouse pilot to a cost-effective on-prem platform turns you into a packrat.

You will quickly reverse this when you realize that "just in case" datasets become drag. You can always build a job for it when you need it. Ditto for the stack; it has to get as small as possible.

3. Downfield view gets better, eventually

Reasonable hunger increases and you start to expand your downfield view. A secret talent of mine growing up was Dance Dance Revolution and Rocksmith. These types of rhythm games use a sorta tablature board.

As you get more comfortable with your movements, you start expanding your field of view from the notes right in front of you to the ones in the distance. Comfort in the field breeds that sort of far vision.

4. Legacy thinking as a pattern

It's a sticky topic, and I was surprised when I first started hearing it. You'll start noticing more, "well, we should be behind. Let others make the mistakes first." It's only when you start running alongside modern data organizations that you see the distinction between running-behind as a mentality and running-behind as a historical constraint. The issue with the first-follower mentality, as far as I'm concerned, is that your team never gets to work through problems. There are things that the initial builders learn that the followers never experience and you never get that expertise.

(I originally posted this to LinkedIn to quickly capture my thoughts on the subject. This may turn into something more substantial.)