On December 10, 2024, Secoda hosted a dynamic Customer Advisory Board (CAB) meeting with participation from a diverse group of customers and data leaders across industries, including representatives from companies like Univision, DailyPay and 6sense. The session provided an engaging platform to discuss the future of data governance, explore Secoda’s product roadmap, and gather feedback directly from our customers.

Highlights of the meeting

What does data governance mean to your team?

The meeting kicked off with an interactive word cloud icebreaker led by Christabel Kim, Head of Customer at Secoda, to explore participants' thoughts on what data governance means to their teams. Key themes included:

• Compliance: Ensuring alignment with both internal standards and external regulations like GDPR and HIPAA.
• Security: Building trust by safeguarding data and maintaining privacy.
• Efficiency: Streamlining processes to make data accessible and reliable.
• Adaptability: Staying ahead of changes in governance requirements and evolving business needs.

Notable responses included "staying ahead," where participants emphasized the importance of being proactive in adapting governance strategies to meet evolving business needs, and "internal and external compliance," which highlighted the dual pressures of managing organizational standards while aligning with legal regulations.

What aspect of data governance is top of mind for 2025?

We followed up by asking what  aspects of governance participants are prioritizing for the coming year. The most frequently mentioned themes included:

• Data quality: The dominant focus for 2025 is ensuring high data quality. Participants noted that this extends beyond simple metrics, encompassing data ownership, usability, and trustworthiness.
• Retention and deletion: Attendees discussed the balance between retaining data for business value and deleting data to reduce compliance risks and operational costs.
• Maturity: Improving organizational data practices, spanning tools, processes, and teams.
• Lineage and contracts: Understanding data lineage and implementing data contracts are growing priorities as businesses aim to scale governance across their data ecosystems.
• Privacy and security: As data environments grow more complex, ensuring privacy and security remains a critical challenge, particularly with the rise of AI-driven tools.

Key takeaways

From these discussions, three overarching priorities emerged:

1. Efficiency: Simplify governance processes through automation and streamlined workflows.
2. Accessibility: Governance practices must benefit the entire organization, not just data teams.
3. Scalability: Governance frameworks should evolve with new tools and technologies like AI.

These insights shaped the conversation around Secoda’s 2025 product roadmap, ensuring that our upcoming features address these critical needs. 

A closer look at Secoda’s product roadmap

Secoda CTO Andrew McEwen shared exciting updates planned for 2025, designed to simplify governance and improve data accessibility. Here’s an overview of what’s coming.

Strengthening enterprise governance

At Secoda, we’re improving key governance features to make data management more secure, efficient, and transparent. Our centralized solution for data access requests streamlines approvals and boosts visibility, ensuring teams can manage access seamlessly and with better oversight.

We’re also enhancing tools that help organizations enforce governance policies tailored to their needs, making it easier to stay compliant and address challenges proactively. On top of that, we’re refining role-based access controls to offer even more flexibility and precision, so teams can manage access securely and efficiently.

These updates reflect our commitment to helping organizations strengthen their governance practices and maintain sustainable data management.

Driving efficiency and insights

At Secoda, we’re further investing in Secoda AI to push the boundaries of what our platform can do. Building on our powerful automation capabilities, we’re expanding our AI-driven agents to take on even more tasks. From automating metadata updates to optimizing resource management, these enhancements are designed to reduce manual effort and boost team productivity.

We’re also upgrading our analytics tools to provide deeper insights into platform usage. With improved visualizations and actionable metrics, teams can better track performance, refine workflows, and drive adoption. These updates reflect our commitment to empowering organizations with smarter tools and more efficient operations, unlocking even greater value from Secoda.

Each of these updates align with feedback from Secoda’s customers, addressing key governance challenges and enhancing efficiency. We’re excited to roll out these improvements in 2025 to make governance simpler and more effective!

Upcoming initiatives

Attendees were invited to watch out for Secoda's industry trends report, launching in early 2025. This report will feature insights from hundreds of industry leaders, including Secoda CAB members, offering a comprehensive view of governance priorities and opportunities.

Key takeaways

The meeting highlighted Secoda's dedication to aligning product development with the specific needs of data teams, emphasizing a customer-centric approach. With governance becoming increasingly critical, Secoda is well-positioned to address complex data challenges through its comprehensive, end-to-end solutions. The meeting also showcased the importance of community engagement, reinforcing the CAB's vital role in shaping Secoda’s strategic direction and fostering collaboration.

We’re excited to build on the momentum from this meeting and bring these enhancements to life in 2025. Our customer’s feedback is invaluable in ensuring Secoda continues to deliver innovative and impactful solutions.

Here’s to a data-driven, compliant, and efficient year ahead!