Hands On Data
How I Let Data Influence Choices
Using data and common sense to make decisions.
A few years ago I dove headfirst into the data-as-a-service(DaaS) space — like Software-as-a-service but the deliverable is raw or semi-enriched data. At that point, I had very little experience performing in-depth data analyses and not much understanding of our customer personas either. What I did bring was a desire to solve customer problems and a willingness to listen.
What I’ll explain throughout this article isn’t specific to DaaS. However, I will say that my experience focused on data has pushed me to grasp the importance of these nuances much faster than I would’ve otherwise.
This is my product-oriented attempt to explain how I see data and use it to make decisions.
Making Decisions
The human brain may have this part figured out better than we realize. Every day you make many decisions based on external stimuli — “data” — that occurs in the course of your day. Unfortunately in the corporate setting to document, justify, and validate your decisions, you need to understand and articulate this process to your stakeholders.
In recent years the importance and abundance of data have become strikingly more apparent, so much so that data has been called the “new oil”. Data is a raw resource that when utilized properly can help you produce a better-finished product. To achieve that result there are two versions of data influenced decisions that I’ll cover (I’m sure there are more — feel free to share).
Data-informed Decisions
Data-informed decision-making provides you the flexibility to include not only quantitative analysis but encourages the inclusion of your qualitative analysis as well. I’ve often found myself at a product development cross-roads whereby the choice of which feature/enhancement/new product to pursue is not supported in the hard numbers and insights I have available to help make my decision.
However there are two sides to every coin and its important to not lose the forest for the trees — perhaps we have interviewed customers who are willing to commit for this new product or existing customers who will renew or dare I say? Follow through on an up-sell if we add a new feature that increases their ROI from our product.
Data-driven Decisions
Put simply, data-driven decisions refer to letting data drive the decision for you. When making a data-driven decision you rely on quantitative results to pinpoint the best solution to the problem at hand. In this case, let’s say I’ve pushed for a new feature release and rolled it out to 20% of our user-base. In the time we’ve been live and testing this feature we’ve seen a measurable increase of average revenue per user. The numbers don’t lie and justifying this enhancement seems like a no brainer.
How do you decide?
Data has proven to be beneficial in making decisions because it works! Its best to not decide with your heart — usually.
This is hard.
Given my elementary definitions and examples here you’re probably thinking invoking the Data-informed decisions methodology becomes a justification for any decisions you want to make that don’t necessarily align to the numbers. The important piece to remember is that the decision should be rooted in data even if you choose to make an executive decision and adjust the outcome. Staying grounded in data at the very least will help you overcome your own bias which is inevitably going to weigh in sometimes.
There are many more in-depth discussions about making decisions from folks smarter than I — right here on Medium, like this piece on Decision Intelligence by Cassie Kozyrkov (Introduction to Decision Intelligence).
Decision intelligence is a new academic discipline concerned with all aspects of selecting between options. It brings together the best of applied data science, social science, and managerial science into a unified field that helps people use data to improve their lives, their businesses, and the world around them.
Decision intelligence has helped shine a light on methodologies like Data-informed decision making by recognizing the limitations of data-driven decision making to ensure you leave no stone unturned when utilizing data to make the best decisions for your business.
This article is by no means comprehensive and I’d love to hear your opinions or suggestions for future topics. Feel free to share in the comments.
About Me
I work solving problems, driving operational excellence, and launching products. Along with being a DaaS focused Product Manager, I consult for organizations focused on maximizing value through product-focused growth and data value. Reach out to continue the conversation or work together.
