David Pires

Every data team is told self-service is the answer. And it is, right up until someone hits an edge case, two reports disagree, or a "revenue" definition quietly shifts underneath a board-level number. Self-service is fast on the happy path and fragile at the edges, and the edges are exactly where trust leaks. In this session, I'll argue that the line between platform and product blurs by default because real work crosses both. The thing worth optimising isn't either one, it's confidence in outcomes. Drawing on the unglamorous "messy middle" of access, definitions, quality, change and support, and on real incidents from the field, I'll share a practical playbook: tier the products that depend on you, flex deliberately between standardising, tailoring and guiding, and make decision rights explicit so escalation never depends on who you know. You'll leave able to spot where confidence is leaking in your own organisation, and with a concrete model for designing the handoffs not redrawing the org chart. Because the best self-checkout doesn't pretend the age-approval moment won't happen. It designs for it.