Your Guide to Running a Successful Data Catalog POC

Introduction

"We want to do a POC - what does that process look like?"

After managing over 150 POCs at CastorDoc, this is the question I hear most often from prospective customers. While it's a great question, I've learned that success starts with understanding the 'why' before diving into the 'how'.

In this guide, I'll share what I've learned about running successful POCs, helping you avoid the common pitfalls I've seen to set your team up for success.

What Is a POC?

Before we dive in, let's get clear on what a POC really is. A Proof of Concept (POC) is a focused evaluation period that serves multiple purposes in a vendor selection process. Think of it as your "try before you buy" period - but with a specific purpose.

A POC helps you validate three key things:

1. Technical feasibility - Does the solution actually work as promised in your environment? This goes beyond feature lists to answer questions like "Is data lineage accurate across tools" or "Does the search drill down to the right level of granularity for our BI tool?"
2. Confirm use case fit - How well does it support your specific use cases? Do we have to fight through unnecessary feature bloat to find what we’re looking for?
3. Solution comparison - Can it really provide the benefits you're looking for compared to other options? This is where you validate that the solution can solve your specific challenges, not just showcase interesting features in a demo.

I've seen too many POCs focus only on features while missing crucial aspects like user adoption potential or use case alignment. A successful POC needs to address all three elements.

Step 1: Start at the Right Time

Before launching into a POC, you need to understand exactly why you're doing one. Think of a POC like buying a car - you wouldn't test drive different models before deciding if you need a vehicle in the first place. Yet I often see data teams eager to jump into POCs simply to "explore what a data catalog could do for them." Inevitably, these teams end up overwhelmed with features they don't need and no closer to a decision.

The Right Approach: POC as Validation, Not Exploration

The most successful POCs happen at the end of the evaluation process, not the beginning. Let me share an example: instead of jumping right in, we advised one of our customers to take two extra weeks to get everything lined up before starting their POC. When they finally began testing, they had all their ducks in a row - they knew exactly what problems they needed to solve, had their budget approved, knew when they wanted to launch, and had everyone important on board with the plan.

The Result: Faster Decisions, Stronger Outcomes

That preparation made all the difference. Instead of using the POC to figure out if they needed a data catalog, they used it to confirm they were picking the right one.Their POC took just two weeks and led to a confident decision. Compare that to organizations that use POCs for discovery rather than validation—they often spend months testing different solutions without real progress.

Step 2: Define Your Success Criteria

Before diving into vendor evaluations, it's crucial to establish a clear connection between your business objectives and your testing criteria. This might sound obvious, but I've seen countless POCs fail because teams lost sight of this alignment.

Identifying Your Current Challenges

I've developed a framework that helps teams stay focused. Start by identifying your current challenges. Think about how your business team spends hours in meetings just trying to find the right dataset, or how your data team handles dozens of ad-hoc requests weekly about data locations and definitions. Consider your analysts who spend more time finding and validating data than actually analyzing it.

Setting Concrete Goals

From these challenges, you can define concrete success measures. What does good look like? For most teams, it means business users finding trusted data in under five minutes, the data team seeing their ad-hoc requests decrease by at least 70%, and new analysts becoming self-sufficient after just one training session.

Measuring Real Impact

One team I worked with took this approach to heart. They tracked their data team's Slack messages as a concrete metric. After implementing their chosen catalog, data-finding questions dropped dramatically, from fifty per week to just five. That's the kind of specific, measurable outcome you want to define upfront. It helps cut through the noise of feature lists and focuses your evaluation on what matters: solving your unique challenges.

Step 3: Choose the Right Vendors

Now that you know what you need, it's time to pick vendors. Here's where many teams go wrong. They automatically go for the biggest names without considering fit. Last quarter, I spoke with a team that had spent 2 years trying to implement a solution with no progress because it was far too complex for their needs.

Ask the Right Questions

The most successful evaluations cut through the sales pitch with direct questions. Ask about their most successful customers and what makes them successful. Start by understanding the vendor's ideal customer profile - who they serve best and why those customers succeed. Ask about their product vision and roadmap priorities to ensure they align with your long-term needs. Most importantly, don't shy away from challenging questions: what types of customers have struggled with their solution? When they lose deals, what's typically the reason?

Step 4: Plan Your POC

A POC shouldn't take more than three weeks. Below is a clear timeline that consistently delivers results.

Week 1: Technical Setup

The first week focuses on technical setup. Start by connecting your warehouse, BI tool(s), and dbt or quality tools if you use them.

Weeks 2-3: Hands-On Testing

This is when you'll run through specific use cases, test with different user groups, and measure how well the solution integrates into your workflows.

Week 4: Making the Decision

The fourth week should be reserved for making your decision and starting procurement discussions. Use this time to compile your testing results, compare them against your success criteria, and begin planning implementation.Aim to enlist a core group of no more than 10 people, mixing data engineers, analysts, and business users. This focused approach leads to clearer feedback and faster decisions.

Step 5: Run the POC

When it comes to the actual testing, I've seen two approaches: hands-on with vendor support or self-service exploration. I strongly recommend dedicated sessions with vendor representatives present. Here's why:

• Real-time problem solving: Get answers to questions immediately.
• Focused testing: Set up dedicated testing periods to complete the process in a timely manner.
• Better engagement: When stakeholders know they have limited time with the vendor, they come prepared with specific questions and scenarios.

If your testers need more than an hour or two to get comfortable with the platform, that's a red flag for future adoption.

Step 6: Turning Your POC into a Decision

The most effective decision-making method I've seen is using a weighted scorecard that aligns with your priorities. This methodical approach ensures your POC journey concludes with a choice that truly serves your organization's needs. The last thing you want is to spend a month of time and effort from your team, just to feel as unsure of the right decision as when you started.

Conclusion

After helping hundreds of organizations through this process, it’s become clear that a successful POC isn't about checking boxes, it's about confirming the right solution for your organization. The difference between success and failure comes down to a few key principles: start with clear objectives, maintain focused testing, and choose vendors based on the fit of your unique requirements.

Remember: A POC is an investment in your future success. Take the time to do it right, and you'll set yourself up for a successful implementation that delivers real value to your organization. The insights you gather during this process will prove invaluable long after your decision is made.

And if you're ever unsure, reach out to your vendor contacts. Speaking from experience, we're here to help you succeed, not just make a sale.