The analysis that goes wrong

This was Juicy’s first analysis assignment. His first job in the sunny city of Dubai. He had graduated 10 months earlier and wanted to make an “impact”. An internship of 6 months had provided him with enough technical skills to dig into data but this would be his first time analyzing and offering recommendations. What could go wrong? (A lot, apparently).

Juicy started off the March month analysis in earnestness and quickly found out some peculiar patterns. The brand’s website looked okayish for an automotive website. It wouldn’t be until a year later that he understood that the website was at the beginning of the user journey and that the majority of the user journey for purchasing a car was happening offline. But anyway, back to the analysis. He found that of all the cars that received traffic, there was one car called AXS which received 90% of all the traffic. The other models, including an iconic gangster (hint: royals), got barely any traffic.?

Without a moment of hesitation, he proceeded to write in bold letters on the slide heading, “Users are interested in the AXS model. Therefore, we should run several marketing campaigns to boost the sales of this model”. He proudly proceeded to show his findings to Amy. Okay, a little bit about Amy. Juicy didn’t understand her accent and dreaded working with her. But due to fate, his direct manager was off, vacationing in Namibia and he had no choice but to face the witch. Half of what she said when he showed the analysis sounded like something he could understand if he put his heart and soul into it but not otherwise. And here is how the conversation went:

“Amy, AXS model received the highest amount of traffic amongst all models. But they don’t have any campaigns planned for AXS this year. So, I have written that they should run marketing campaigns promoting the AXS”.

Susy who was present at that time said, “But AXS receives high traffic because of a technical issue”.

“Really”

“Yes, on the other model pages, when users visit, the page doesn’t fire the tag necessary to identify and map the traffic against the model name”.

“Oh”.

“So, we can’t write your insight”.

…

…

Juicy replied, “So, what should I write here?”. By now, he was fully convinced that he would be let go for coming up with something so horribly wrong.

Susy said, “You can validate if users actually like the AXS by measuring the leads that the AXS model received”.

All the while, the witch was maintaining a very calm demeanor.

And now, the witch jumped in. “Actually, even if the AXS has a lot of leads, we can’t run campaigns for it because those models are going to be discontinued next year”.

He had never felt stupider in life. Fear that he might have to start over a job search again, after months of hunting and finally landing on one just felt so daunting.?

“Sorry Amy, I don’t know what to write”.

“It’s okay! Don’t worry about it. I will take care!” came the response from the, no, no longer a witch. Actually a nice and kind person!

“This is where she is supposed to throw a tantrum at me and berate me for the poor quality of work. Why is she being nice? Is she gonna hurt me later?”.

But none of that happened. Cool as a cucumber!?

“Is this really happening to me? She is a nice manager! Maybe not. Maybe yes” and a hundred other conversations went inside his head. But the night ended with Amy taking control over the report which got sent to the client who loved the presentation. Well, Amy did it. Of course it was amazing!?

This anecdote explains the state of the data collection at most of your firms. Yes, you! You will be surprised to know the number of things you can know about your customer just by doing an analytics audit with professional help. Investing in analytics is not just about implementing some tools and forgetting it. How are you going to justify the costs? Only when you combine the collected data with business context do you unlock new possibilities. What’s even better? You will be finding gold mines along the way which will help you unlock new levers of growth for your business. Ok, I have spoken so much. Enough. If you ever feel that you need a professional to look under the hood and tell you when exactly your engine is going to fail (and to help you see things that you never saw - dare I say the “s” word here), you know who you should write to!

And yes, this post was inspired by the popular show called "The play that goes wrong". I have fictionalized it wherever I felt necessary.

Wondering what Juicy looks like? Here you go: