Episode 133: Full Data Stack Observability with Salma Bakouk

Show Notes(01:41) Salma reflected on her upbringing in Paris (France) and her love for math since a young age.(04:05) Salma talked about her decision to dive deeper into statistics.(07:39) Salma recalled her 5 years in investment banking in Hong Kong.(10:44) Salma doubled down on the cultivation of her resilience during this period.(13:45) Salma shared the founding story Sifflet.(15:53) Salma touched on her co-founder dynamics with Wajdi Fathallah and Wissem Fathallah.(18:50) Salma explained the concept of Full Data Stack Observability to the uninitiated.(22:14) Salma extrapolated on Sifflet's approach to data observability.(24:37) Salma discussed Sifflet's data quality focus with automated monitoring coverage and over 50 data quality templates.(27:28) Salma discussed Sifflet's data lineage solution with field-level lineage, root cause analysis, and incident management/business impact assessment.(31:47) Salma discussed Sifflet's data catalog with a powerful metadata search engine and centralized documentation for all data assets.(33:46) Salma expanded on the full-stack mindset as a data vendor.(37:03) Salma emphasized the importance of integrations with other data tools.(38:52) Salma touched on product features such as Flow Stopper to stop vulnerable pipelines from running at the orchestration layer and Metrics Observability to extend the observability framework to the semantic layer.(43:40) Salma unpacked her article on building a modern data team.(47:54) Salma shared some hiring lessons to attract the right people to Sifflet.(54:02) Salma emphasized the importance of company branding.(55:01) Salma shared her thoughts on building a startup culture.(57:26) Salma briefly mentioned her process of working with design partners in the early stage.(01:00:17) Salma emphasized her enthusiasm for the broader data community.(01:02:05) Conclusion.Salma's Contact InfoLinkedInTwitterMediumSifflet's ResourcesWebsite | LinkedIn | Twitter | DocsData Catalog | Data Quality Monitoring | Data Lineage | IntegrationsMentioned ContentPeopleZhamak Dehghani (Creator of Data Mesh and Founder of NextData)Benoit Dageville, Thierry Cruanes, and Marcin Zukowski (Founders of Snowflake)Books"The Hard Thing About Hard Things" (by Ben Horowitz)"The Boys In The Boat" (by Daniel James Brown)Notes

My conversation with Salma was recorded back in late 2022. Since then, I recommend checking out the launch of Sifflet AI Assistant and this blog post on 2024 data trends.

Datacast features long-form, in-depth conversations with practitioners and researchers in the data community to walk through their professional journeys and unpack the lessons learned along the way. I invite guests coming from a wide range of career paths — from scientists and analysts to founders and investors — to analyze the case for using data in the real world and extract their mental models (“the WHY and the HOW”) behind their pursuits. Hopefully, these conversations can serve as valuable tools for early-stage data professionals as they navigate their own careers in the exciting data universe.

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