Data Governance Interview with Danielle Titheridge

I met Danielle when she attended my training course and loved her enthusiasm, so I thought she would be a wonderful person to interview for this blog. Danielle describes herself as a ‘people’ person, sociable and likes to find solutions to problems.

She’s from Dorset and enjoys long coastal walks with her Hungarian Vizsla and likes spending time with family and friends too.

Like many of us, Danielle has had a number of different careers from a primary school teacher to working in HR and now Data Governance.

How long have you been working in Data Governance?

I have been working in Data Governance for approximately 6 months as a Data Governance Analyst. It is quite different to my HR Advisor role but there are similarities with working with people and being another support function for the organisation.  

Some people view Data Governance as an unusual career choice, would you mind sharing how you got into this area of work?

I was working at the RNLI in the People department and then I saw an advert for a Data Governance Analyst and wondered what it was. It sounded really technical but after speaking with the Data Governance Team I learnt that a lot of it was about managing change and stakeholders and not having to be too technical at all. I applied for the job and was fortunate to be offered the role.  

What characteristics do you have that make you successful at Data Governance and why?

People skills! I was put off originally thinking it was a really technical role (because I am not technical), however you don’t need to be really technical to be good at data governance. Don’t get me wrong, you need to understand some areas so you can understand how it can benefit the organisation but a lot of what we are focusing on is change management and increasing people’s confidence. We want them to have an understanding of what data governance is and how it can benefit them, their teams and the organisation as a whole. Once people understand the ‘why’ then they are more likely to engage and want to make positive change and efficiencies.

You do also need to have a lot of resilience at times and be able to adapt.   

Are there any particular books or resources that you would recommend as useful support for those starting out in Data Governance?

Your website and blogs I found really helpful as well as your training course. It really cemented ideas in my head and really started to eliminate the imposter syndrome so I honestly can’t recommend it enough.

Also my wonderful colleagues in my immediate team but also our wider team to take the time to explain to me what we do and how it fits into the bigger picture and organisational strategy.

 What is the biggest challenge you have ever faced in a Data Governance implementation?

People not wanting to take accountability, specifically relating to data roles and the importance around this.

The ‘Why’- people still don’t really understand it. I think because it links with data protection and information security, people struggle to know the difference.

People see it as us asking them to do something else in their already busy day but the ironic thing is once they have it will provide them with more time as it creates efficiencies – work smarter not harder!

A recent project we have been working on is around classifications (sensitivity labels) and from a technical, system perspective there are a few difficulties but the main thing is the engagement and culture of people. So we have definitely had to redirect our focus and next steps and timing is definitely a crucial factor we have had to consider too.  

Is there a company or industry you would particularly like to help implement Data Governance for and why?

As I am working for a charity now I would be interested to see what it would be like to work for a private organisation one day and the difference in tools, culture and behaviour towards data governance.  

Finally, what single piece of advice would you give someone just starting out in Data Governance?

You don’t need to be an expert at it all and as we know technology changes, has updates etc so you will never 100% be up to date so learn to be ok with that… I am still learning to be ok with it.

It’s all about story telling and change management - so show people in a way they can relate to, pull on heart strings and then they will see the benefit.