Data Products

In Empire, Andy Warhol captured data from a constant data source and created a unique data product. Twenty-four times per second, the camera captured data, an image of the New York skyline. The data source was the skyline from 8 p.m. to 2 a.m. The data product is the film.

Broadly defined, data means events that are captured and made available for analysis. A data source is a consistent record of these events. And a data product translates this record of events into something that can easily be understood.

Data products have changed rapidly with technology. Today, data products may be automated, like a website that shows you reports in real time, or they may be built by hand, like a PowerPoint presentation. They can be raw data extracts—perhaps a CSV file containing sales details, or they can be highly processed, like a complex, interactive data visualization.

Consider a large healthcare company, a client of ours. This client captures data on hospitals from around...