Data governance platforms are evolving into strategic enablers of data productization, AI readiness, and federated models, but execution gaps persist. Buyers prioritize integration flexibility over feature breadth, and usability remains a barrier to business adoption. While capabilities like lineage and glossary metadata are foundational, success hinges on vendor partnership, modular implementation, and a clear path to maturity. This report distills insights from 29 enterprise implementations to help you evaluate platforms, avoid common pitfalls, and ask the right questions to ensure long-term value.