Freeing up your Data Teams so they can Provide Actionable Business Insights

In our last post we chatted about using stories to keep your senior leadership team engaged in your team’s A/B testing efforts. 

But what makes a good A/B test? 

Which test ideas are relevant and value-added and which are not? 

We would like to argue that data-driven test ideas are some of the most impactful test ideas to drive results and help your senior leaders achieve their goals. Testing an idea that has the potential to address checkout funnel fallout and decrease that rate is impactful. That being said, how much time does your data team spend developing and providing these insights? This question will serve as a good barometer: 

“What % of time does your data team spend responding to ad hoc requests from clients that could be answered easily by that very same client if the right framework is in place?”  

Now consider this follow up question: 

“How much more impactful could your team’s output  be to senior leadership if they spent that time doing deep dive analysis and coming up with key insights and test ideas to drive results?” Let’s talk about how this could be structured within your organization. 

DEFINITION

Self-Service – Your internal clients have baseline reporting in place that they can easily access without the help of your analytics team. The reporting contains key metrics that the business wants to measure. Your team will provide training in how to access and understand the reports.

STEP 1 – UNDERSTAND THE REPORTING REQUESTS

The first step to take is to assess the types of reporting requests that come into your Analytics Director’s team. If you are like most organizations, your teams are incredibly busy. It may seem like every week there is at least one fire drill. Deadlines are tight and typically your internal clients are responding on the fly just as much as you are. It is super easy to get lost in the day-to-day and just continue to have your team pump out reports like a conveyor belt. Taking the time to talk with your team members about the various types of reporting requests that come in to them is a critical first step towards having your client’s self-service basic requests.

Here are some questions that will help you guide those conversations:

• Do your requests come in ad hoc?

• How often are requests made?

• How long is the turnaround time?

• What % of your requests are low level of effort where you say to yourself “This is so easy why can’t they just pull the data themselves!?!”

• What % of the requests are high level of effort where you say to yourself “Crap, where do I even begin on this one??”

• What % of the requests require re-work due to scope creep?

STEP 2 – CATEGORIZE THE REQUESTS

Now that you have a solid understanding of the requests that come into your data teams, it’s time to categorize this information. This will give you an even deeper understanding of the work and will help you create and implement upcoming training sessions for your internal clients. Remember, the overall goal here is to free up your data analysts to work on more meaningful and more impactful work and deliver actionable insights, not just the data by itself. When your team gets to this point, you are fully crushing it and adding serious value.

Categorization can be done using several methodologies. There is no “right” answer here. You’ll need to do some critical thinking with respect to how this all relates and figures into your organization’s high-level goals. Let’s review a few of these options, and possibly this will trigger more ideas for you and your team.

Importance

• Business Critical

• Must-have but not Business Critical

• Nice-to-Have

Level of Effort

• Low

• Medium

• High

Turnaround Time

• Same day

• 2-3 days

• >3 days

Requesters

• Rank and file

• Managers and Senior Managers

• VPs and Directors

• CEO or Board of Directors
  

STEP 3 – BUILD THE STARTER WORKSPACES

The starter workspaces are build initially by your Analytics team, and are then handed off to internal clients so that they can quickly and easily access metrics that are important to their roles. These starter workspaces do not need to be super fancy with lots of bells and whistles and donut visualizations. They do, however, need to be (1) easily accessible and (2) easily understood. The workspace should address the top questions that your internal clients are likely facing in your business. Is overall traffic trends? Conversion funnel fallout? Marketing impact?

You may want to give thought to how to organize your workspace. Ask your internal clients what is the very most important piece of data that cannot live without. Put that first!!

STEP 4 – PROVIDE TRAINING

Now that everything is in good order, it’s time to train the troops! I served in the Air Force, so I am very familiar with that term. But seriously, now is the time to set up a plan to educate your internal clients on not only the process but also the workspace(s). You will likely experience that there are all levels of analytics knowledge with your internal clients, from the very beginners to the more advanced. You will want to think about how to tailor your training accordingly. 

Start with a select group of internal users. Think about establishing a weekly Office Hours session where this select group of internal users can discuss their ongoing questions as they get up to speed. Training should be professional and include a time-line with proficiency checkpoints along the way.

STEP 5 – COMMUNICATE THE BENEFIT

Change is difficult for everyone. You’ll want to get ahead of this one by taking some time thinking about the true benefit that your internal clients will receive. After all, they may not quite like self-service in the beginning. However, remind them that the ultimate goal here is to make them look like rock stars in their role by providing actionable insights that will help them drive bottom line benefits to not only their bosses, but also the company. This may be one of the most important steps presented here, and if you only take home one idea from this content, take this one! In order to do this, your team needs to be freed up so that they can spend quality time strategically planning and performing deep dives on the data. When your team perfects this super important skill, you’ve got it made in the shade!

I hope that you found this information and guidance useful. We live in a world of constant distractions, where our attention is pulled in many directions throughout the day. This fact makes it that much more important to show that your team is adding value to the broader organization. Stand out and shine by implementing this Self-Service model.

Good luck!!