How to Capture User Data You Didn’t Even Know Exists
Carter Rabasa, CEO of Fizbuz, explains how dark data can help you prioritize new features and better serve your customers.
Want to know how your customers are interacting with your software so you can better prioritize features? Well, you’re going to need a comprehensive BI and analytics product. But don’t let an off-the-shelf product lull you into thinking you’re capturing every data point you can; you may only be getting part of the story.
In this week’s episode of the Ship It Show, Carter Rabasa, CEO of Fizbuz, discusses the importance of capturing what he calls “dark data”: the data your customers are creating that you may not even know they’re creating. “You could see these dashboards and charts, and it would make you feel great. People are signing up,” Rabasa says. “But the next thing you know, a whole cohort of customers stops using your product, and you rip your hair out, thinking, ‘What happened?’”
So where to start? At the beginning, he says: Make it easy for anyone — particularly those who are close to the customer — to test a hypothesis and decide whether capturing a new data point is worthwhile. “Put those people in a position to actually be able to influence what’s happening from a data perspective,” Rabasa suggests.
From there, make it easy for everyone to access that data that you do collect. Not only will that democratization of information empower everyone to ask questions and pose theories, it will also reduce your team’s impulse to overcorrect by measuring dozens and dozens of metrics, just on the off chance that they’ll reveal something. “Then you’re iterating,” Rabasa says. “You start out with five pieces of data that everyone agrees upon, but then over time you’re adding to it and subtracting from it.”
In other words, a targeted, yet flexible, approach to BI and analytics trumps casting a wide net any day.
Are you ready to get DevOps done?
Join the Ship On Day One team for an intensive, four-day workshop that will help you create a roadmap for shipping more software, communicate your vision to any audience, and bag quick wins. Visit http://sodo.rocks/shopclass for details and dates.
