From Data Chaos to Data Trust: Inside Condé Nast's Data Catalog Implementation

Imagine you’re a leader at a global media company. A recently profiled celebrity walks into your office asking for engagement metrics across your content. Simple request, right? 

Not when you're managing 16 iconic brands across 32 global markets, with content spanning print magazines, websites, mobile apps, videos, and podcasts—each governed by different privacy regulations. 

This wasn't a hypothetical scenario for Condé Nast, the media empire behind Vogue, GQ, Wired, and other legendary publications. It was a daily reality that highlighted their urgent need for data transformation.

In a recent webinar, Hilda Sadek from Condé Nast's Architecture and Governance team shared valuable insights into how the company transformed its approach to data through the implementation of a data catalog. This blog post dives into the key learnings from their journey toward trusted data.

Understanding Condé Nast's data challenges

Before implementing their data catalog solution, Condé Nast faced several significant obstacles:

Global complexity and privacy concerns

Operating across 32 different markets means navigating a complex web of privacy regulations and consumer expectations. As Sadek explained:

"We're a global company, with 16 brands across 32 different markets around the globe. Take a moment and think about the amount of data points that we work with. It's actually difficult to picture, and that's because it is, in fact, complex."

The complexity of this landscape meant that the team needed to address various privacy frameworks, including GDPR in Europe and CCPA in California, while still collecting meaningful data about customer interactions.

Multi-platform content consumption and behavioral analysis

Condé Nast delivers content through numerous channels, creating a multi-dimensional data landscape:

"Millions of people also consume Condé Nast content across our brands in different forms. So that can mean through print, like buying a Vogue magazine. It can mean digital, like going on wire.com or even on apps such as Vogue Runway. Within each of these, users can be consuming our content through reading the text, like an article, they can be watching a video, or they can also be listening to audio."

This multi-channel complexity is further amplified by the diverse types of behavioral data captured across these touchpoints. The result is not just difficulty in tracking where data is captured, but in combining these behavioral insights in meaningful ways that respect privacy regulations while still delivering actionable intelligence. The permutations of content type, delivery platform, and user engagement metrics created a multi-dimensional puzzle that required thoughtful organization to solve.

Siloed teams and multiple "sources of truth"

According to Sadek, perhaps the most significant challenge was organizational:

"Teams use different tools, different technologies, and they even sit within different time zones. So the term ‘source of truth’ means something different for each team. An alignment across them becomes very difficult and can involve several meetings and email chains, and still a decision to be made."

This fragmentation led to inconsistent definitions and interpretations of key metrics, slowing decision-making and hampering effective data utilization.

The three pillars of successful data catalog implementation

To address these challenges, Condé Nast implemented a data catalog built on three fundamental pillars:

Pillar #1: Business-stakeholder conviction

Getting buy-in across the organization was crucial for success. The team approached this strategically:

"The first pillar, conviction, is really the step that ensures that the data catalog is seen as a platform that everyone in the organization can benefit from, not only the data governance team."

They focused on selecting a high-value MVP use case that would demonstrate immediate benefits, partnering with key stakeholders like data engineers and product analysts, and creating exclusive content that could only be found in the catalog.

This exclusive content drove adoption, with one definition becoming "the most visited document with over 500 visits within just six months." These standardized definitions created a shared language between business and technical teams. When everyone—from marketing to editorial to analytics—uses the same definitions for KPIs, collaboration improves and decisions happen faster. The catalog essentially aims to bridge the gap between those who need insights and those who manage the data.

Pillar #2: Clear and frequent communication

The second pillar focused on building awareness and understanding across the organization:

"The second pillar is communication, and this can be really portrayed in a few ways. The first, being ambassadors of data literacy within the data governance team, but also finding power users and representatives within our community that can spread the word within their respective teams."

Their communication strategy included:

• Identifying and empowering data literacy ambassadors

• Delivering tailored training sessions

• Implementing a strong communication plan with senior leaders and analysts

• Creating a regular newsletter highlighting catalog updates

• Gamifying adoption through curation competitions

Sadek also ensured that her team spotlighted top data curators to ensure they were recognized for their contributions to organizational data literacy:

"We would hold monthly competitions for curation, so whoever curated the most, they would be top contributors at the end of the month. And they were announced in the newsletter, and other channels.”

Pillar #3: Consistency and repetition

The third pillar recognized that sustaining momentum would be crucial for long-term success:

"Having a good platform and clear processes is great, but still not enough, so you can wow people with an exciting and new product. But consistency is the key to keep up the momentum and to make sure that the benefits are realized and the platform continues to be adopted across the org."

To maintain momentum for the data catalog program, Sadek’s team’s approach included:

• Maintaining a positive attitude about the platform's value

• Not being afraid to repeat key messages

• Monitoring adoption metrics regularly

• Seeking frequent feedback through surveys and one-on-one discussions

Overcommunication (in a friendly, positive tone) was a key foundation of this pillar:

"This means always having a positive attitude. Not being afraid of repeating yourself and holding multiple training sessions. Also capturing the right KPIs and measurements and monitoring them frequently."

Measuring business impact

Condé Nast established clear metrics to track the success of their data catalog implementation:

"We reached a consistent increase in active users within the first six months, reaching 137 after the first 6 months of launching the data catalog."

They initially focused on adoption and curation metrics, but evolved their measurement approach as the platform matured:

"After some time, we found that this focus may change because as adoption grows or maintains a good level of visits and active users, you want to then think about other aspects to ensure that you're still driving value. So for example, we looked at retention and loyalty of users and also their stickiness."

Key lessons for data catalog implementation success

From Condé Nast's experience, several valuable lessons emerge for organizations considering a similar data governance journey:

1. Start with a compelling use case that demonstrates immediate value

2. Focus on exclusive content that drives users to the platform

3. Establish clear roles and responsibilities for content creation and curation

4. Foster a community around data literacy and catalog adoption

5. Measure consistently, but be willing to evolve your metrics as adoption matures

6. Be patient with the cultural change required for sustained adoption

As Sadek noted when asked about difficult stakeholders:

"Having leadership sponsorship really supports that... The second aspect is honestly, repetition and consistency, it really goes a long way because if you understand what that particular person or team is looking for, and you show that it can be delivered through the data catalog, and you work with them. Showing that their needs come first then it's just a matter of time of showing the value."

Looking ahead: Condé Nast's next steps for data governance 

Having established a strong foundation, the team is now focused on expanding their data catalog capabilities:

"First of all, we'll be uploading some new schemas into the data catalog to, again, increase adoption. We're also working on onboarding our dashboards for the dashboard documentation in particular. We will work on surfacing E-privacy classifications on Alation."

They're also developing automation solutions for metadata quality management and continuing to expand adoption across new domains within the organization.

Conclusion

Condé Nast's journey illustrates that implementing a data catalog is not merely a technical challenge but a comprehensive organizational transformation that requires conviction, communication, and consistency. Their success demonstrates how a well-executed data governance strategy can overcome complex challenges across global operations, diverse platforms, and organizational silos to create a single, trusted source of data truth.

By focusing on these three pillars and understanding that data literacy is an ongoing journey rather than a one-time project, organizations can follow Condé Nast's example to transform their own data landscapes and unlock the full value of their information assets.