Turn Enterprise Data into Value with a Data Product Manager
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Enterprises pour millions into data. New tools, bigger teams, endless dashboards. Yet executives still ask the same question: Where’s the ROI?
AI models stall. Data products don’t scale. Trust erodes, not because the tech is broken, but because no one owns the outcome.
That’s where the Data Product Manager (DPM) steps in, to turn data into action. That’s why this role has become a game-changer for enterprise data teams.
At Indicium, we’ve seen it firsthand: companies that treat data like a product move faster, reduce waste, and build platforms people actually use. They turn data into a strategic asset.
This post breaks down the DPM role, why it’s critical for enterprise data strategy, and how to build it for impact.
What Is a Data Product Manager? (And What They’re Not)
A Data Product Manager (DPM) owns the full lifecycle of data products, from discovery to delivery to measurable impact. They align business needs with data solutions, ensuring every product — whether a dashboard, model, or dataset — solves a real business problem.
DPMs are not just backlog pushers or ticket takers. They are strategic leaders who own outcomes, prioritize impact, and drive alignment between business and data teams.
As Pedro Portela, Data Product Manager at Indicium, puts it:
Why Enterprises Can’t Afford to Skip This Role
Data teams are shipping faster than ever. New pipelines. More dashboards. Complex AI models. Despite the investments, leaders are still asking: Where’s the value?
The disconnect runs deeper than tech. Most data work happens in silos, disconnected from business priorities. Without someone to own the end-to-end process, ROI evaporates.
A Data Product Manager defines the right problems, maps the right solutions, and ties delivery to real business results.
Consider this: 69% of data leaders can’t prove ROI, according to Gartner. That’s not a tooling failure, but a leadership gap. One that only product thinking can fill.
How Great Data Product Managers Drive Results
The best DPMs don’t just move projects along; they ensure every data product delivers measurable impact. Their job begins before a line of code is written and continues long after delivery. At Indicium, we see five core areas where Data Product Managers move the needle:
- Prioritize business value: Scope and rank use cases by ROI, not data availability or stakeholder demands.
- Run strategic discovery: Lead sessions with business leaders and users to identify pain points, gaps, and goals.
- Align across silos: Coordinate product, engineering, and business teams with a shared roadmap.
- Ensure usability and adoption: Drive clear versioning, documentation, and feedback loops to keep products relevant.
- Track outcomes: Measure usage, adoption, and impact, adjusting quickly to ensure continued success.
Pedro adds,
From Cost Center to Growth Engine
Without purpose-built data products, most platforms underdeliver. The DPM role shifts data from a cost center to a high-impact asset. When done right, the impact is clear:
- Faster decisions: Data products answer the right questions, not just the available ones.
- Leaner operations: Reduce one-off requests, rework, and tooling complexity.
- Greater adoption: Involve users from the start to increase engagement and relevance.
This approach drives measurable ROI. According to Harvard Business Review, companies that apply product thinking to data reduce time-to-use-case by 90% and cut total cost of ownership by up to 30%.
Real value comes from designing data with outcomes in mind and that’s exactly what a skilled Data Product Manager delivers.
What Great Looks Like — and What Happens Without It
A high-performing Data Product Manager is decisive, business-driven, and trusted across teams. They know when to zoom into technical detail and when to step back to align strategy. They:
- Frame the problem before chasing solutions
- Build alignment early and protect it through delivery
- Translate noise into clear product signals
- Navigate trade-offs with context
Pedro Portela sums it up well:
When that leadership is missing, things unravel fast. Teams ship tools nobody uses. Data products pile up with no adoption. Business questions remain unanswered, despite all the noise.
The consequences are costly. Gartner expects 60% of organizations to fall short on AI ROI by 2027 — not due to weak models, but fragmented execution and poor ownership.
Don’t Just Hire. Build the Function.
Hiring a Data Product Manager isn’t enough. Even the best talent will fail without the right structure, tools, and culture behind them.
At Indicium, we help enterprise organizations build the DPM function from the ground up. We don’t just fill the role; we enable businesses to embrace product thinking in their data strategy from day one. Here’s how we make it work:
- Role clarity, aligned with business priorities
- Training to integrate product principles across teams
- Continuous improvement through feedback loops
- Execution support with expert teams that scale enterprise platforms
We’ve helped global enterprises transform fragmented data efforts into high-impact products that drive growth.
For the Stellar Development Foundation, we cut cloud costs by 77%, rebuilt their data platform, and reduced partner onboarding time to 48 hours — driving efficiency, scale, and impact across the network.
Want to see how a Data Product Manager can impact your business?
Let’s talk.
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