I developed a vision for a data-driven culture that could be embraced by the Product Team, and supported by the company as a whole.

I lead the way in putting our vision into practice, leading to higher user engagement and user satisfaction, and increased revenue.

Situation

• Our Product team were relying heavily on qualitative research methods to influence our product direction and decision-making.

• Whilst qualitative research methods are incredibly insightful, it often leaves the silent majority unheard and under-represented, and the turnaround time for running a study and gaining insights could be slow.

• It meant that strategic decisions were more influenced by anecdotal stories rather than evidence gathered at scale. 

• And it had become difficult to understand the real impact of recent initiatives.

Objective

My ambition was to cultivate a data-driven culture for the company that would fit well alongside how we were working already, and to put this vision into practice to positively impact user engagement, satisfaction and revenue.

Approach

• I worked closely with our Co-founder/COO to research best practice for using data within a Product Team and cross-functionally.

• Together we discussed and agreed on the elements of a data-driven culture that would be most impactful for us to embrace.

• I defined a competency framework for the data practice at Firefly, which led to us hiring a specialised data analyst.

• I worked alongside the Senior Leadership Team in establishing user behaviour goals for the company.

• I continually challenged the Product Team to ask questions of user behaviour, to interrogate engagement data, and back up assumptions with evidence, as a way to make our data-driven decision-making more habitual.

Challenges

• It took a lot of trial and error to learn from our data, and get better at setting realistic, measurable goals.

• In the early days, the team found it demotivating when we set our aspirations too high to realistically achieve.

• Working with data introduced the team to new ways of thinking and learning, and new habits needed to be built, which took time and encouragement. 

Outcomes

• We now set user engagement goals every quarter, and review them on a weekly basis.

• The insights we have drawn from data analysis have led to higher user satisfaction (evident in increased app store rating), and an increase in revenue (by identifying upsell opportunities).

• Early proxy metrics suggest that our upcoming product releases will also have a significant impact on increasing engagement and satisfaction.

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