🙌 MKE Snowflake User Group – Q1 2026 Event Recap

Thank you to everyone who joined our Q1 Milwaukee Snowflake User Group especially a shout out to Mohit Agarwal & Jennifer Bigby for the engaging presentation and our chapter co-lead Jonathan Holck for tackling the quick win surrounding Backups! One of the most engaging parts of the event was our candid discussion around business objectives and Snowflake and two questions were asked of the group:

1️⃣ What “best practices” are actually more hindrance than benefit?
2️⃣ If you had to cut budget, what would you eliminate?

Here’s what the group shared:
🔍 When “Best Practice” Becomes Friction
-Over-analyzing code and creating unnecessary rework
-Overtly compliant governance / approval theater
-“Agile” rituals (intake + quarterly planning) that don’t feel agile
-Custom deployment pipelines with heavy compliance layers
-Manually running DDL instead of using consistent CI/CD
-In some cases — no major blockers, which is a win

Theme: Process should increase clarity and velocity — not add ceremony.

✂️ If Budgets Tighten — What Goes First?
-SaaS licenses and managed services that aren’t measured or tracked
-Real-time guarantees where the business doesn’t truly need real-time
-External pipeline/orchestration tools that Snowflake-native features could replace
-Low-value testing work
-Contractors (in some orgs)
-Reducing job frequency / relaxing freshness SLAs
-Re-evaluating project volume instead of cutting people

One standout insight: Instead of cutting people first, several responses focused on reducing tool sprawl and consolidating into Snowflake-native capabilities.

🎯 What This Says About Our Community
We’re thinking critically about governance maturity.
We’re questioning tool sprawl.
We’re focused on measurable value.
We’re willing to challenge default “enterprise” patterns.

That level of reflection is exactly what makes this group valuable.
If you weren’t able to attend, we’d love your take:
❓ What “best practice” has slowed you down?
❓ What would you cut first if asked to reduce spend by 50%?

Drop your thoughts below 👇

See you at the next MKE Snowflake User Group event in May! 🚀