5 things to keep in mind when you start looking into data 

Since, you are reading this blog you are already motivated to look into data. Below are the 5 basic things that you should keep in your mind before diving in:

1. Is the data right?

First and foremost thing is to check whether the data is correct?

Sometimes when we find an awesome insight from the data provided to us, we get so excited that we started dreaming that this is the insight for which I will get a freaking raise. But after a while you will find out that okay, it was all because one of your analytics tag was firing multiple times on a page where it was not even supposed to. All the effort, all the time spent digging out that insight, wasted.

So check the sanctity of the data. If it is provided by someone else, ask for the source and assumptions they made while fetching it.

2. Every metric should have a counter metric:

Here counter does not mean mathematical counter but it is used in the context of “opposite”.

An individual metric can give you completely wrong picture, you should always take at least one counter metric while analysing. For e.g. Terry has a website. Terry hired an agency to operate his digital media ads. Website’s visitor number increased by 20% after that. Terry was happy and ready to pump in more bucks to that agency. But Wait!! Bounce rate of the website is now 50% which was used to be well below 40 %. This means although visitors are increased but those are not your customers, for all we know they just unintentionally clicked on your popup ad.

3. Look at the big picture: 

Every metric must converge for revenue, may not today but connected

At the end, what everyone want is a Tesla, and for that you need $$$$$$$. So make sure everything, every metric improvement is another step towards profitability.

As mentioned in above example, if Terry was also looking into revenue number metric, he will definitely had found that although those ad campaigns is increasing their daily visitors but these additional visitors are not contributing much in Revenue.

4. Keep Track of metrics definition and choose wisely:

The definition of even basic metrics like customers, registration etc differs from business to business and it should be as different businesses has different requirements, different visions. The basic step people miss is to keep a log of that definition.

Which one of the following definition is correct?

1. Net Transactions = Total Transactions

2. Net Transactions = Total Transactions - Cancelled Transactions

3. Net Transactions = Total Transactions - Refund Transactions

4. Net Transactions = Total Delivered Transactions

All the above definition are valid, it completely depends on your business. And with the free flow of employees coming and going, it is entirely possible if someone misinterpret what is what. So Keep A Log of Metric Definitions.

5. Do Not Stop:

Most of the time we analyze data, create an awesome report, get useful insights , present that report to the board, get applause and move on. There is no point of all this cumbersome process of mining and analyzing data if you don’t keep track of those metrics in future. It should never be onetime task. You should keep monitoring metrics. Automate stuff, reports, alerts etc. There are many tools available in the market or make one for yourself according to your requirement. But DO NOT STOP looking into data.