In previous blogs I discussed how to profit from business intelligence and analytics.  This post will focus on formulating the right question to take advantage of customer data.  The business goal is to gain insights to increase your customer base, customer retention, and result in an overall increase in profits.  

Your company collects a lot of data from many sources. Much of that data is collected from customers.  Some examples are: invoices, orders, Google Analytics, emails, and survey data.    I coined the term “Turning data into dollars” many years ago.  The next several paragraphs provide the roadmap for the journey of leveraging that data.

First, be clear about customer centric business goals.   Be as succinct as possible.  Any shared organizational goals must be measurable.  Such as:  

• Increase sales by 17% in the next 12 months in children’s game sales.   
• Improve customer experience (With well defined definitions to measure customer satisfaction) by 10% using survey data so that profitability and market share expands 8%
• Identify company branded cigar cross-sell and upsell opportunities to increase sales 15% with current customers.
• Implement marketing campaign to target “repeat buyers” that have not purchased vitamins in the last 90 days to improve customer retention and increase top line sales.

The important point is to have a clear idea of what needs to be accomplished.

Next, work with your Business Intelligence team to clarify and refine the goals and spot gaps.  Clarifying the  business goals for the technical team is important.  The team needs the business context and value statement in order to execute.  As the team aligns with the goals, It is important to identify any gaps in data collection that would prevent the data analysis required to meet the stated goals.   Gaps become clear as do the techniques to fill the gap or find an alternate path.  Creating “user stories” are a great way to convey the needs of the business.

What is a User Story?  User stories are a simple, but powerful tool to help the entire team understand the business need and also find the “definition of done.”  Here is a typical user story:

“As a marketing campaign owner, I would like to know which repeat customers have not purchased from us in the last 90 days so that I can send them an offer to increase overall customer retention”  They all follow the same pattern:  As a __________  I would like to ___________ so that ____________.  Craft your business goals from paragraph one in user stories.  Discuss them in detail with your team so as to minimize ambiguity.  Take and publish detailed notes as supporting narrative (requirements) for the user stories.  The user stories become the centerpiece for the multi-disciplinary team to define the “critical path” to success.

I encourage my business clients to think in terms of the stated business goals, not a specific idea of a dashboard or analytic or report to be developed.  What are the key metrics that help define the success or failure of the business.  Simon Sinek implores business leaders to “Start with why.”  User stories must define who, what and why.   Using the customer data you already have to understand who are your customers, what is important to them, and why it is important, provide the basis for answering those questions.  

Finally, measure the results!  Watch for trends and insights in customer data as defined in the user stories.  Based on the measured results, is the company tracking to the goals?  Are the described “business levers” working as anticipated? (levers such as a promotional offer to a specific customer segment, a lower price, a new feature, etc.)  A well designed analytic (dashboard) will not only make those levers obvious, but also provide the insight as to which levers work and which don’t.  

Key Takeaways:

• Define clear business goals.
• Translate business goals into “user stories”  and discuss them in detail so that the technical team can understand the business context of the analytics. 
• A well crafted analytic based on user stories will provide insights into the business levers available to leverage customer data to meet stated goals.
• Measure results, and make adjustments often.

To be sure, this is a big topic that deserves more than a short blog.  “Turning Data into Dollars” is  a journey, not a destination.  To make the best use of customer data, clearly understand and communicate the business goals.  Steer clear of defining the technical requirements, design aspects, and task level details.  Develop concise user stories that can be used as a roadmap to track analytics development process.  Along the journey, measure results consistently so that you can make changes based on insights gained.  

About: Andrew Bourne is an Entrepreneur, Technology Leader, and writer.  He builds and leads high performing technical teams solving difficult business challenges to successful results.  He has successfully commercialized over 50 SaaS products.   Andrew writes about solving big Product / Market / Technical challenges, team cohesiveness, staying on the critical path, and gaining velocity through clarity.  To learn more about Andrew’s experience, engagements and availability, email abourne@predictive.it or via Linkedin.