Data Breakthroughs: Solving Real-World Data Challenges

A podcast where data experts solve real-world operational challenges submitted by listeners. Each episode tackles a fresh problem, delivering actionable solutions, key insights, and implementation steps to help data professionals overcome barriers and create business value. impactoperations.substack.com

Data Breakthroughs: Solving Real-World Data Challenges is a business podcast hosted by Lior Barak - Cooking Data, with 14 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80. PitchCentric scores this show on Booking Probability, Listen Score, and live audience signals refreshed every 24 hours.

Lior Barak - Cooking Data hosts Data Breakthroughs: Solving Real-World Data Challenges, a business show with 14 episodes published.

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  Data Breakthroughs: Solving Real-World Data Challenges

  Why Simple Data Integrations Take Months & How to Fix Them (feat. Ilya Vladimirskiy)

  Dec 16, 202541 minS0

  <p>Episode Summary</p><p>I’m incredibly excited to have Ilya back for the Season 1 finale. He was my very first guest in the pilot episode, and honestly, he helped me figure out this format - what works, what doesn’t, how to make the collaborative problem-solving feel authentic. So it felt only right to close this season by bringing him back full circle.</p><p>In this finale, we tackle a frustratingly common scenario: a marketing stakeholder needs data from a new platform for critical quarterly forecasting, but the data team estimates four months to build the connector. Mean...

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  Episode #10

  How to Bridge the Data-Experience Gap & Gain Executive Buy-In (feat. Tiankai Feng)

  Dec 10, 202534 minS1

  <p>Data Breakthroughs - Episode 10: When Data Meets Decades of Experience</p><p>Real-world data problem solving in action! Tiankai Feng (Director of Data & AI Strategy at ThoughtWorks, author of "Humanizing Data Strategy" and "Humanizing AI Strategy") and host Lior Barak tackle a manufacturing company where plant managers with 20+ years of experience resist a modern data platform.</p><p>Problem Category: Organizational Data Strategy / Change ManagementRuntime: 32 minutes</p><p>The Challenge: A family-owned manufacturer invested heavily in data infrastructure, but plant managers still make decisions based on "what happened last time" and gut instincts, creating a divide between analytics teams...

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  Episode #9

  How to Manage Analytics Overload & Build Effective Dashboards (feat. Eva Schreyer)

  Nov 26, 202538 minS1

  <p>Data Breakthroughs - Episode 09: When Analytics Becomes a Dashboard Factory</p><p>Real-world data problem solving in action! Eva Schreyer (Head of Data & Analytics at Neugelb/Commerzbank) and host Lior Barak tackle a community-submitted challenge about analytics overload for the first time during recording.</p><p>Problem Category: Business Intelligence & Dashboarding / Organizational Data StrategyRuntime: 37 minutes</p><p>The Challenge: A product team drowns in 40+ charts per report while struggling to make data-driven decisions, creating a disconnect between analytics investment and business value.</p><p>The Solution: Transform from dashboard factory to strategic partner through executive alignment, monetizing requests, and...

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  Data Breakthroughs: Solving Real-World Data Challenges

  Why Your Perfect Model Fails in Production: The Accuracy Paradox (feat. Irena Bojarovska)

  Nov 12, 202551 minS0

  <p>Data Breakthroughs - Episode 8: The Office Kitchen Paradox</p><p>Real-world data problem solving in action! Irena Bojarovska and host Lior Barak tackle a community-submitted challenge for the first time during the recording.</p><p>Problem Category: Machine Learning & AI Implementation Runtime: 50 minutes</p><p>The Challenge: A hackathon team built a smart kitchen demand forecasting model with 91% accuracy, but the company is still throwing away 20-25% of fresh products weekly while running out of popular items.</p><p>The Solution: The breakthrough isn't about fixing the model, it's about fixing the data. The model is missing critical inputs (o...

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  Episode #7

  How to Compete Against AI-Powered Competitors With Limited Resources (feat. Jon Cooke)

  Nov 12, 202536 minS1

  <p>Data Breakthroughs - Episode 7: Small Company vs AI Giants</p><p>Real-world data problem solving in action! Jon Cooke (Founder of Dataception) and host Lior Barak tackle a classic David vs. Goliath scenario for the first time during the recording.</p><p>Problem Category: Data Strategy & Customer AnalyticsRuntime: 36 minutes</p><p>The Challenge: Small German seed company (7 people) with 600+ product varieties, 4 years of customer data, and 30 years of gardening expertise. They're losing to giants who use algorithms for personalized recommendations. Conversion rate: 2.1%. Sent tomato seeds in December while competitors suggested microgreens and winter planning guides. They have incredible data...

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