Instead of "build it and they will come," EasyJet works backwards from business demand in specific domains. They started with customer marketing — defining what "customer" means, differentiating holiday from airline customers, and mapping metrics to data assets. By building one end-to-end use case (a single traveler view) with definitions, lineage, and searchable business glossary, they proved value before scaling to other domains.
Key takeaways:
Start with simpler domains that have fewer metrics rather than jumping into everything at once across the organization
Minimum viable product approach proves value quickly, building confidence before expanding to more complex areas
Product-driven approach works: pick one specific business use case (like customer marketing or single traveler view) and go end-to-end
Work backwards from where business demand exists rather than building governance infrastructure and hoping people come
Once one domain shows clear value (searchable definitions, lineage, metric relationships), scaling to other domains becomes easier
