Driving Data Catalog Adoption Through Psychology and Design

About the Session

Adoption, not technology, is often the most challenging part of governance. In this session, Björn Barrefors, Metadata Management Lead at ICA, Sweden’s largest food retailer, shares a product-driven approach to accelerating adoption of data catalogs and governance tools by applying principles of psychology and design. Drawing on ICA’s experience rolling out DataHub across a complex ecosystem spanning retail, banking, and insurance, Björn explains why governance must serve business goals, not the other way around, and how treating internal tools like competitive products leads to higher engagement. Learn how to make governance feel like help instead of homework by focusing on intuitive design, user language, and aligning incentives across diverse user groups.

Key Takeaways:

• How to apply product-management thinking to data governance adoption
• Design and language strategies that make governance intuitive and effortless
• Real-world lessons from ICA’s phased rollout and “help, not homework” philosophy