There is a quiet shift underway in how we should understand data in general: Jed Sundwall’s1 Great Data Products blog post captures what many practitioners sense but rarely articulate: That definition is as crucial as access. Making data open is not enough. Making it usable is the real act of design. And we can even take this even further:
Open data alone does not create impact. What creates impact is doing and doing it with a strong, customer-centric mindset.
Jed’s essay urges us to move from abstract notions of “data value” toward a vocabulary of products: intentional, documented, maintained, and situated within real contexts of use2. This is not a semantic adjustment but a philosophical one. It places responsibility back on the makers: Who owns the data? Who is it for? How does it endure?
In practice, the implications are profound. We speak often about “extracting value” from data, but value is not something mined; it is something crafted. It emerges when design meets purpose, when usability becomes the interface between complexity and comprehension.
This perspective feels especially relevant for open data. An open license is an invitation, not a guarantee.3 Without thoughtful product design and sustained dialogue with users, openness risks becoming ornamental, a gesture rather than a utility.
The message as I understand it, distilled: Stop treating data as an inert asset. Treat it as a designed product. Focus on users and on delivery. The value will follow.
Footnotes
In the past, Jed Sundwall led the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Open Data Program. Currently, he serves as Executive Director of Radiant Earth.↩︎
Bernard Marr’s Data Strategy (pdf) discusses in depth the shift from treating data as a passive resource to treating it as an active component of product design and value creation↩︎
An argument Rob Kitchin made a while ago is that while openness removes legal and technical barriers, it doesn’t ensure usability, capacity, or contextual understanding, all of which are needed for impact.↩︎