# Every governance program needs data owners. Almost nobody writes down what a...
Canonical: https://social-archive.org/tgroenwals/sApoPGsoSe
Original URL: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/john-wernfeldt-82894b58_every-governance-program-needs-data-owners-share-7450441207056416768-bVyk/
Author: John Wernfeldt
Platform: linkedin
## Content
Every governance program needs data owners. Almost nobody writes down what a data owner actually does. So you end up with a name on a slide and no real change. I've been pulled into too many governance reviews where the data owner role exists in theory and disappears in practice. Nobody knows what they're accountable for. Nobody knows what they decide. Nobody knows when to call them. Here's the job description that actually works: Accountable for: → One named metric → Its written definition → Its calculation logic Decisions they make: → Approves definition changes → Signs off before publishing → Decides the source of record When things break: → First point of contact → Investigates root cause → Logs the fix and communicates it Works with: → Data engineering for sources → Analytics for consumption → Governance lead for standards Time commitment: → 2 hours per week, steady → 1 review meeting per month → Available when it breaks Not in scope: → Building dashboards → Writing pipelines → Managing the governance program The magic is in what is NOT their job. Most data owner roles fail because people pile delivery work on top of accountability work. Then nobody wants the role. The one-line version: A data owner is the named human who answers for one metric when something goes wrong. If nobody has this job at your company, you don't have ownership. You have hope. Write it down. Name the person. Everything else in governance follows from here. I wrote a free playbook on building this out in 30 days: https://lnkd.in/dGDjTkev ➤ Follow John for daily posts on what actually breaks in data teams and how to fix it. 🔔 Tap the bell on my profile to get notified when I post. ♻️ Repost if your governance program needs job descriptions, not just titles.