Data , Data Everywhere Not a drop of Insight

Imagine yourself waking up one morning   in a rocking bed of sorts, with a chill breezing over your body and lots of light dazzling on your eyes. Squinting uneasily from within the lids, you realize you are out in the open, beneath the deep blue, crammed in a small boat that somehow has kept you afloat on an endless mass of scary blue waters. That’s Mr. Pi, you must be exclaiming. A direct lift from his book of ‘Life’.  It may be amusingly shocking to think of yourself as Mr. Pi, but if you were a modern day business manager and woke up to a sea of data with all the pressure to behave like an analyst- it sure would have been a pain.

As modern day business  manager you probably have one or all  of  those  typical traits  that shows you’ve never got a chance to use data .  Your vendors have gotten you to spend big on tools producing great looking, pretty reports. While deep down, you actually felt they are dumb, at times even funny, but never really insightful.  A disproportionately higher portion of your budget is spend on tools and gadgets. But talk about spending on a hire, on great analytical minds, who actually do the analysis- well that’s something you never heard before, right? If these were not enough, here’s one more- “So what?” – A question that’s been clouding your thoughts, whenever you saw those numbers from websites and social media. They never make sense, and worse, they generate confusion.

Relax, you are not alone. These are common traits and like every other danger posing mankind, this too can be won.  There is obviously a method to it and few step to get it right.

Know, there are only 4 areas to look into- Your business, your business goals, your customers and your competitors. Notice how we stretched our perspective from an idea born in mind to a business entity in the market place. That really is the journey of all businesses on the planet. All our business issues pertains to one or some of these areas combined. Tying data insights back to these four areas will keep it relevant but more importantly will help you use them to solve issues. Already overwhelming? Here’s another way to look at it. Try answering these questions.

  1.    What is  the idea, what is  the acceptability, what does the click stream data say about your website and  social media.

  2.     How are your goals met, to what extent? What are your micro conversions?

  3. Why does  this  happen- understanding customer behavior , their reaction to your offering , your messages and advertisement

 4.     What else- how does it relate to your completion where do you stand in the market place against your defending competitors?

And as you look  into each question , you will find  yourself untangling the muddled up  knot and comprehending  each area ,  gleaning  out  insights and using it to know and manage your business better.

Always Know…..

If  data to you is  sea, insights will obviously be salt laden , unusable sea water, but if  you’ve segmented it  successfully , observed them linking back to  areas of  concern , data  will really look like that beautiful  lake with sweet water for  life.

 Now Smile J you are no more in deep sea.