At the end of August, the Select Star team hosted a Product Forum to share the latest product developments and showcase our vision for the future. Led by Rya Sciban, Director of Product, our 2023 Product Forum was precisely this — an avenue where we presented new features, explored our upcoming roadmap, and fostered transparency for the Select Star community.
But it wasn’t just a one-way street. This year’s forum also provided attendees with the opportunity to voice their feedback, share experiences, and articulate their unique needs.
To best serve all the information we had to share, the forum was structured around three main segments:
- Review of 2023 to date
- Insights into the next 6 months
- Audience feedback and discussions
2023 so far
As we've carved our way through 2023 to the latter part of the year, it's the perfect time to pause, reflect, and dive into the strides Select Star has taken this year.
With our unwavering commitment to establish Select Star as the definitive source of truth for your organization, we’ve introduced some transformative features for both data documentation and data management, as well as some highly anticipated integrations. Here's a recap of the 2023 road so far.
Current data documentation features
Documentation has always been on the center of proper data management, but it poses a few challenges. Ensuring accuracy and relevance is crucial to its success, yet it can be a time-consuming process.
Now, instead of grappling with the creation process, the user role pivots to reviewing suggested descriptions by Select Star and its AI.
Our AI documentation feature not only encompasses lineage, but it now extends to columns, tables, and dashboards — and soon, metrics and business glossaries will join the list, too!
And since we know you’re tired of the hassle of maintaining dbt documentation in separate yaml files, we created dbt docs sync: a way for you to sync your dbt models’ table and column descriptions directly from Select Star to your dbt Git (Github/Bitbucket) repository. That means no more juggling separate files! You can update all your descriptions directly in Select Star to bridge the gap between data teams and business users.
Navigating this landscape between business operations and data models is no small feat. It involves aligning technical jargon with business terminologies, ensuring data accuracy that matches real-world business scenarios, and presenting data insights in an easily digestible manner for non-technical stakeholders. At Select Star, we're acutely aware of these hurdles.
That’s why we created two new features: Markdown and APIs and Team Pages. We don’t want to simply clarify data for the technical folks, we want to render it actionable and understandable for business teams, too. It’s all about making data meaningful across the board.
Current data management features
Data management and data governance have never been more intricate. Organizations big and small constantly grapple with ensuring data security (especially of PII), managing costs associated with big data tools like Snowflake, and guaranteeing the consistent and accurate propagation of data changes.
Recognizing this, Select Star has invested in forward-thinking tools.
For starters, our Lineage Usage feature allows you to trace your data back to the column level, so you can understand exactly how each column is being used. This is a key part of understanding your data ecosystem. With Select Star’s column-level lineage, you can find dependencies of each table, column, or dashboard, and see how changes to your assets would impact your data environment.
And with the introduction of Snowflake Cost Analysis, you know the origin of your costs and the context, like which dashboards and teams are causing the computes – allowing for more informed budgetary decisions.
Our automated PII detection identifies and safeguards sensitive user information, reducing risks associated with PII compliance with privacy regulations. In conjunction with our User Management API, you can ensure every user has the appropriate level of access they need to succeed.
Beyond these, our growing suite of features also prioritizes comprehensive data governance. We're not just talking about access control, but a complete reshaping of how data is managed, modified, and monitored, making the entire data ecosystem more cohesive and efficient. It's our commitment to ensuring that data works for you—not the other way around.
Current integrations
Meanwhile, we’re continuously expanding our integration offerings, especially concerning source systems. These are a few of our additions in 2023.
Integrating with source systems enables a seamless data traceability experience, so you can effortlessly track data from the moment it's captured to when it's used in applications. End-to-end visibility like this not only bolsters data integrity and security but also simplifies troubleshooting and ensures consistency across different stages of the data lifecycle.
Whether it’s data management, data documentation, or new integrations, everything we’re shipping is geared towards empowering our users (that’s you!) with everything you need for a complete data overview. Together, as we embrace these advancements and feedback, we move closer to a future where data is accessible and understandable for everyone.
For a deeper dive into the discussions and insights shared, watch the full recording of the product forum here.
