My search to question
VALUE OF ANALYTICS?
by Antti Koski

Who am I?
Antti Koski
Product Owner, Digital Analytics @ OP
(Adobe Analytics/Launch stack in recent years)
https://fi.linkedin.com/in/koskiantti
https://twitter.com/koskiantti
Presentation includes content & inspiration from these sources:
• by Ibrahim Elawadi ”measuring the value of analytics” (Superweek 2023 on Youtube)
• by Doug Hall ”Fact Check Your Data”
https://www.slideshare.net/Fastbloke/fact-check-your-data-datamonkspptx
• by Tim Wilson ”A Claim: All Data Work Falls into One of Two Categories”
https://gilliganondata.com/post/2023-02-22-a-claim-all-data-work-falls-into-one-of-two-categories/

Value of data?
0 VALUE

What is Analytics?
Data collection & management
plan (technology, framework, data security, consents, metrics etc), implement, test & validate
+
Data usage
methods, analyse, insights & decision/action
=VALUE
You need to succeed on both to get value

We assume there is value
IS THAT EVEN
VALID ASSUMPTION?

Based on my knowledge and experience
I KNOW there is value
There are studies that says data-driven
companies get 15%-25% MORE GROWTH
McKinsey 2022
However, some studies says only 20% OF
ANALYTICS insights provides real value
Gartner 2019
Where is the evidence?

Real answer to value is
IT DEPENDS & CONSTANTLY CHANCING
Because value (mainly) occurs when
ACTION IS TAKEN
Action usually requires change & change usually requires people
(sometimes action can be decision for not to act)
EVENTUALLYVALUE IS DIFFERENT
PER PERSON/TEAM/UNIT etc…
& that’s why difficult to count in total
The truth

Why is your house more valuable
than your neighbours house?
You have taken ACTIONS & renovated
your house up-to-date to get more value

Analytics is REALLY (!!!) difficult
#1 MISSING (DATA) CULTURE
People, process, organization, change management, resources, goals…
= Lack of data-driven work on daily basis
#2 DATA QUALITY
Data governance, data ownership, missing/bad data, data security regulations,
legacy systems, biases among analysts, different methods to use data…
= Lots of uncertainty
Tip for tool providers:
As Analyst I love your tool’s new capabilities, but as a Product Owner or Business Lead I
would love to get more efforts to solve our real problems

Methods for challenges
FOR DATA CULTURE
Plan and start with ”why?” – Why do we collect that data?
No goals, no money – Start with hypothesis if nothing more
Start with one use case, eventually make a business case
Start every day with data
Every company has one customer, break silos
Hire right people and build processes
Usually one metric bad (impression, click, order), combined metrics are
better (roi, roas, romi and continue to attributions and eventually to marketing mix model)
Agree what to measure, we can analyse data in many ways
Make a strategy with standards for quality and processes for people
FOR DATA QUALITY
Say ”no” to hacks – Don’t use bad data
Minimize bias
Every model is wrong some are useful
Data ownership contains one name
Without documentation there is no trust
Test & validate

Back to Analytics formula & the missing last mile
Companies don’t win by having most Analysts
Analysts are crazy about the data collection and we are angry if something is missing on our data
collection, however, we should be more angry if our data is not used!
Companies don’t win by having most data
More data = more hope to get value?
Image by Brent Dykes
https://www.effectivedatastorytelling.com/
There is also a need to have more product owners, management and lead roles to be obsessed about
using data. Actually every role in a company should be OBSESSED TO USE DATA

Unboxing the value of Analytics
MONEY (profit)
Everyone loves money, better to be profit center than cost center
(cost saving) TIME & EFFICIENCY
Time is money too! Decision not to do something stupid is valuable too
(better) USER EXPERIENCE
Better products and services with data affects all the way to brand….

Are you a profit center or cost center?
VALUE – COSTS = ROI
However, how to include time savings
and better user experience in value?
THATWOULD BE ANOTHER INVESTIGATION…
Here is one point of view to investigate more:
https://www.kaushik.net/avinash/calculate-return-
on-analytics-investment/
Value vs. Return on Investment

Summary
If you have data you are still a person with opinion
There is NO direct business value in collecting data
Focus on data that drives change
Start from something – Customer 360 view is a myth
Avoid ”needs more data/analysis”, focus on actions ”what? So what? What next?”
You have a real possibility to get value from data if you are making decisions and/or
actions based on data
Auditing your maturity level on different data capabilities will provide insights do you have real
possibilities to get value, also use case & business case calculations will provide understanding
Total value of Analytics is quite impossible to measure, but doesn’t
mean that we shouldn’t try to understand and calculate it using
different methods

Value in context of Web / Digital Analytics
01
Value in context of Digital Analytics team
02
BONUS SLIDES
–
VALUE IN OUR
COMPANY´S
CONTEXT

Thank you. The end.