The Data Stack Show

Re-Air: Data Teams at the Crossroads: Proving Value in a Changing Business Landscape with Ben Rogojan

Feb 11, 2026
Guest
Ben Rogojan
Ben Rogojan, owner of Seattle Data Guy and data consultant who advises companies on analytics strategy and community building. He talks about how data teams must prove tangible value in tight budgets. Conversation covers AI’s impact, prioritizing high-impact work over vanity metrics, delivering minimal actionable outputs, and the skills needed to bridge data and business.
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INSIGHT

Tooling Lowered Friction But Hid Outcome Gaps

  • Modern tooling (cloud warehouses, Fivetran, dbt) removed technical friction and lowered costs for data work.
  • That led to lots of output but often little measurable business outcome, exposing value gaps when budgets tightened.
INSIGHT

Internal Data Work Is Easier To Cut

  • Internal optimization work is more expendable during cuts compared with customer-facing engineering or analytics.
  • Data teams focused inward risk being seen as luxury amplifiers rather than essential revenue drivers.
ANECDOTE

Fraud Lists Yielded Action, Not Dashboards

  • Ben recounted building fraud lists that directly enabled action versus dashboards that only showed aggregated cost.
  • The list output led to concrete interventions, unlike passive dashboard numbers.
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