Your Data Catalog is a Ghost Town

The playbook I used to fix this for Mars, Inc. (and how you can use it too)

Most data catalogs are ghost towns. Despite the investment in implementation and integration, adoption flatlines. The search bar sees no traffic, and meticulously documented tables gather digital dust.

This is a common outcome of data catalog projects. The root cause is rarely the technology itself. The problem isn’t the tool. The problem is the strategy. We treat the catalog as a project to be completed, a box to be checked, rather than a living, breathing resource to be integrated into the daily workflow.

The result is a vicious cycle: stale data erodes trust, which hinders adoption, which in turn ensures the data remains stale. The tool meant to create instead becomes a symbol of wasted effort.

Diagnosing the Ghost Town: Why Did Everyone Leave?