USEFUL FOR KNOWING WHAT TO PRIORITIZE

Asking Data Product Users

Ismail Elouafiq
If you haven't watched Simon Sinek's talk about asking
"Why" I would highly recommend it...
If you haven't watched Simon Sinek's talk about asking
"Why" I would highly recommend it...

PS: let me tell you in advance it could be very cheesy,

especially if you're allergic to those kinds of things
If you try to build a Product for everybody,
you will end up building a product for for nobody

Instead focus on one use case and follow it start to finish

Go deeper instead of wider.

If you try to build a Product for everybody,
you will end up building a product for for nobody

Instead focus on one use case and follow it start to finish

Go deeper instead of wider.

But HOW do you do that?

There is no way around the following:

Research and define what they need

Select what you and they will love to work on
Implement something simple to verify your assumptions
Reiterate from there with  small increments
To research define and prioritize....
First ask your users the following
If you could do anything with data...
What would you actually use for decision making
To research define and prioritize....
First ask your users the following
If you could do anything with data...
What would you actually use for decision making

ASK THEM WHY at least 3 times (most of the time)

And here's a couple more questions we've asked our users
What's their current state in the way YOU use data?
What are the top 3 to 5 metrics or KPIs you rely on?
Choose the ones that you truly rely on. For example: number of video starts per
client, total views per article etc.
How do these impact your way of making decisions (or would eventually
in the future)?
If they do not seem to impact your decision making what other data
would?
If this data is inaccurate or unavailable how would that affect the
business?
Is it worse if this data is unavailable or if this data is wrong? For example: if
the "total number of views" did not count iOS users by mistake but you are still
able to see the "total number of views" as opposed to not being able to see the
"total number of views" at all
And here's a couple more questions we've asked our users

How often do you check these metrics/KPIs?

How often do you actually use these metrics/KPIs to make decisions?
In previous analytics tools (e.g.: Linkpulse, Adobe Analytics, Comscore
etc) What pain had you experienced?
How much did you trust the data?
What would be the best way to communicate an incident to you?
What do you currently use?
 NOW ASK YOURSELF

AMONG THE PEOPLE USING YOUR DATA

PRODUCT WHO CAN INVEST THE MOST?
“ Data :
I could be chasing an untamed
ornithoid without cause .”
― Star Trek The Next Generation
AVOID ADDING MORE THINGS
LEARN TO SAY NO TO THE REST AND FOCUS

Add it to the backlog

 Thank You

ismail.land/velocity