how to build a data-driven company

Josh Braaten

CollegisEducation.com

@JLBraaten

• Director of Inbound Marketing, Collegis Education

• Vice President of Minnesota Search Engine Marketing Association

• Co-Founder of Glass en Masse

Three times as likely to execute decisions as intended

Source: Forbes,The Big Data Boom: Is Your Company Ready? October, 2013

http://www.forbes.com/sites/baininsights/2013/10/30/the-big-data-boom-is-your-company-ready/

Impressions * Click-Through Rate = Clicks =

Visits * Conversion Rate = Conversions *

Average Transaction Value = Revenue –Expenses = Profit

Internet Math is Business Math

Sent Emails * Open Rate = Opens *

Click-Through Rate = Clicks =




# of Tweets * Avg Retweet Rate =

Twitter Impressions * Twitter Click-Through Rate = Clicks =






Average Transaction Value = Average Revenue per Quarter *

Number of Quarters – Quarterly Expenses = Profit


Twice as likely to use data very frequently when making decisions

Source: Forbes, The Big Data Boom: Is Your Company Ready? October, 2013


Without a System, All Issues Look the Same

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Issues Reported by Students

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Issues Reported by Students with Drops




Public Enemy #1

Source: The New York Times, What Wal-Mart Knows About Customers’s Habits November, 2004

“Start predicting what’s going to happen, instead of waiting for it to happen.”

-Linda Dillman, Walmart, 2004

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/14/business/yourmoney/14wal.html

Source: Forbes, How Target Figured Out a Teen Girl Was Pregnant Before Her Father Did February, 2012

http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2012/02/16/how-target-figured-out-a-teen-girl-was-pregnant-before-her-father-did/

Guest ID # Credit Card Name Email

1000000001 xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-4243 Josh Braaten [email protected]

1000000002 xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-3053 John Doe [email protected]

1000000003 xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-1836 John Smith [email protected]

Getting Systems in Order is Both Easy and Hard

Unique Customer ID

Source: Fast Company, Jawbone Tracked Hundreds of Thousands of Up Users to Find the Most Sleep-Deprived States December, 2013

http://www.fastcompany.com/3022977/jawbone-tracked-hundreds-of-thousands-of-up-users-to-find-the-most-sleep-deprived-states

Without It, Everything Looks Like This

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Public Enemy #1

Source: Wired, Mark Zuckerberg’s Letter to Investors: “The Hacker Way” February, 2012

“The Hacker Way is an approach to building

that involves continuous improvement and

iteration. Hackers believe that something can

always be better, and that nothing is ever

complete. They just have to go fix it — often

in the face of people who say it’s impossible

or are content with the status quo.”

- Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook, 2012

http://www.wired.com/business/2012/02/zuck-letter/

An Analytics Swiss Army Knife Provides Insights

Segment Traffic CR(%) Goal Completions

Products 80,000 4% 3,200

Locations 50,000 6% 3,000

Home 225,000 1% 2,250

New Customers 10,000 10% 1,000

Service 15,000 5% 750

An Analytics Swiss Army Knife Provides Insights

Five times as likely to make decisions much faster than their market peers



Controlled Testing Verifies Hypotheses and Understanding



Public Enemy #1

Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4

No Social Media 72% 70% 73% 72%

Facebook Users +26% +27% +15% +14%

Community Users +24% +21% +5% +14%

Source: Harvard Business Review, When to Act on Correlation, and When Not To March, 2014

http://blogs.hbr.org/2014/03/when-to-act-on-a-correlation-and-when-not-to/

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Original V1: Blue V2: Olive

Satisfied Neutral Dissatisfied

Qualaroo NPS Ratings by Background Color


Twice as likely to be in the top quartile of financial performance within their industries


When More Companies Can See Where Issues Affect Revenue



Average Transaction Value = Average Revenue per Quarter * Number of Quarters – Quarterly Expenses = Profit

Where Issues Seem Less Like This

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And Tested With This

To Produce Wins Like This

v

To Produce Wins Like this