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About Data Products

We decide what is worth building with data and AI. Then we build it.

Data Products is a data and AI consultancy headquartered in Chicago. The people who scope an engagement are the people who deliver it: the platform, the models, the security around them, and the training that makes them stick.

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What we believe

Three ideas the firm is built on

  1. Data is a product, so it needs an owner.

    We treat a dataset the way a good software team treats a product: someone owns it, someone uses it, it has a life cycle, and it has to earn its keep. The firm is named after that idea. A dashboard nobody opens is a product nobody wanted, and the fix is rarely another dashboard.

  2. The work is done when people use it.

    Improving Lives Through Data™ is the test we hold every engagement to. It asks whether the nurse, the analyst or the claims handler works differently because of what we built. If the answer is no, the engagement is not finished, whatever the plan says.

  3. Say what is true, even when it costs us the next phase.

    We would rather tell a client the pilot should stop than sell them the scale-up. Our starter services end in a decision for that reason, and stopping is one of the answers.

How we work

Four commitments that hold on every engagement

They are written into how engagements are scoped, not only into this page. How Data IQ™ works

  • Senior people on the workThe people who scope an engagement are the people who deliver it, hands-on.
  • Evidence before opinionEngagements start by scoring where you stand against your own systems, with the Data IQ™ method, before anything is built.
  • Model-neutral, by policyWe hold partnerships with the major data and AI platforms. None is exclusive, and the recommendation follows your data and what you already run.
  • Yours to keepWhat we build is delivered in source, with a written handover, so your team can run it without us.

Founder

Who founded the firm

Dr. Mechie Nkengla

Dr. Mechie Nkengla

Founder, CEO and Chief AI & Data Strategist

She founded Data Products on the idea in its name: that data should be run like a product, with an owner and a purpose. She holds a Ph.D. in applied mathematics, in computational sciences, and her work sits where research meets delivery: AI strategy, machine learning, data governance and responsible AI.

In October 2024 she was appointed to the Illinois Generative AI and Natural Language Processing Task Force, which advises policymakers and companies on using generative AI responsibly. She writes Executive Bytes, a weekly newsletter for executives with more than 1,400 subscribers on LinkedIn, and hosts Private Executive Bites, small dinners where senior leaders work through one hard question.

Read Executive Bytes The task force appointment Private Executive Bites On LinkedIn

The people behind the work

Led from Chicago, delivered by people who have done it before

Engagements are led from Chicago and delivered by senior practitioners, with a bench of vetted specialists, including people in Latin America, Europe and North Africa, on hours that overlap the US working day. People join the bench only after they have been vetted on real delivery, through a technical screen and a paid trial task or past engagements with us, and have signed an agreement and an NDA. The same people deliver our own engagements.

  • AI & GenAI engineers
  • Data engineers
  • Data scientists & ML engineers
  • Data & AI architects
  • BI & analytics engineers
  • Data & AI strategists
  • Governance & AI risk leads
  • AI security specialists
  • AI & data literacy facilitators

A sample, not a limit: the bench covers all seven delivery practices.

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About, in more depth

Where to go from here

Tell us what you are working on.

Thirty minutes with a senior practitioner, about your situation rather than our services.

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