Data-Driven Startups

Learn the 3 Steps to Data-Driven Startup Enlightenment. Originally presented at the Lean Startup Circle Meetup in Cambridge, MA on July 22, 2010.

Transcript

1. David Cancel - @dcancel http://davidcancel.com/ Data-Driven Startups Lean Startup Circle Boston Cambridge, MA, July 2010
2. David Cancel - @dcancel “In God we trust; all others must bring data.” - W. Edwards Deming
3. David Cancel - @dcancel Who am I Companies Advisor Investor
4. David Cancel - @dcancel The Problem: 98% of the people who visit your site, leave never to return.
5. David Cancel - @dcancel The Problem: 98% of the people who visit your site, leave never to return.
6. David Cancel - @dcancel We love making something from nothing. Yes, we’re hiring.
7. David Cancel - @dcancel Talking, Reading and Dreaming are Worthless Get it done.
8. David Cancel - @dcancel #JFDI
9. David Cancel - @dcancel #JFDI Just Fucking Do It.
10. David Cancel - @dcancel #JFDI Just Fucking Do It. Please.
11. David Cancel - @dcancel Lean Startup? Customer Development? Who cares...
12. David Cancel - @dcancel It can all be summarized into one sentence.
13. David Cancel - @dcancel Does anyone give a shit about your dumb idea?
14. David Cancel - @dcancel There are NO repeatable patterns for startup success. None. Stop looking for one.
15. David Cancel - @dcancel Do I have your attention now. ;-)
16. David Cancel - @dcancel Buy this book ★ This is the best startup book I’ve ever read. ★ I personally own two copies. ★ Required reading for startup engineers. ★ You can find it on Lulu.com
17. David Cancel - @dcancel And this one too. ★ This is more of a “manual” than a “book”. ★ Good for everyone on your team to read. ★ If people care about your product read this to learn how to determine if you can turn your hobby into a business. ★ You can find this on Amazon.
18. David Cancel - @dcancel But remember that you will not find any “secrets” in those books. Stop looking for one. Go solve a problem.
19. David Cancel - @dcancel Ok enough ranting.
20. David Cancel - @dcancel Time to talk data.
21. David Cancel - @dcancel http://www.flickr.com/photos/joao_trindade/4363149160/
22. David Cancel - @dcancel Optimize your startup for learning by creating a data-driven framework.
23. David Cancel - @dcancel Analytics & A/B Testing are also not the answer.
24. David Cancel - @dcancel Use quantitative & qualitative data to test YOUR assumptions.
25. David Cancel - @dcancel A/B Testing. Multivariate Testing. Huh?
26. David Cancel - @dcancel Multivariate Testing is Useless.
27. David Cancel - @dcancel You are way too small to matter.
28. David Cancel - @dcancel The point of testing is to prove or disprove assumptions quickly.
29. David Cancel - @dcancel Multivariate testing leads to a non-gratifying experience because it takes too long.
30. David Cancel - @dcancel The vast majority of sites should only use A/B testing. This means you.
31. David Cancel - @dcancel Shameless Plug: ABTests.com Learn by example
32. David Cancel - @dcancel Always Be Testing Just Don’t be Stupid.
33. David Cancel - @dcancel The Local Maxima Problem Your Design A Better Design Optimized at Local Maxima Current
34. David Cancel - @dcancel The Local Maxima Problem Your Design A Better Design Optimized at Local Maxima Current I stole this slide from Joshua Porter - @bokardo
35. David Cancel - @dcancel “Design is never done” - Joshua Porter
36. David Cancel - @dcancel Optimize your startup for learning not data.
37. David Cancel - @dcancel The 3 Steps to Data-Driven Startup Enlightenment
38. David Cancel - @dcancel Data-Driven Startup Checklist ★ Operating Dashboard ★ Conversion Funnel Analysis ★ Cohort Analysis
39. David Cancel - @dcancel Skip the fancy shit and use Google Spreadsheet. Ghettofabulous.
40. David Cancel - @dcancel Step 1: The Operating Dashboard.
41. David Cancel - @dcancel A single place for your entire team to see where you suck the most.
42. David Cancel - @dcancel Company-wide dashboard Everyone! Including interns. Fictional
43. David Cancel - @dcancel Every initiative has to map to positive changes in these numbers.
44. David Cancel - @dcancel Kill all features that don’t improve your operating metrics.
45. David Cancel - @dcancel Only move to the second step after you’ve mastered the Operating Dashboard.
46. David Cancel - @dcancel Step 2: Conversion Funnels
47. David Cancel - @dcancel Metrics are fun, but Funnels kick ass.
48. David Cancel - @dcancel Fancy Forget pretty visualizations
49. David Cancel - @dcancel Pretty Wasted time
50. David Cancel - @dcancel Keep it ugly & raw Do this tomorrow morning.
51. David Cancel - @dcancel Monitor your funnel weekly to see how changes are impacting your business.
52. David Cancel - @dcancel If you aren’t doing this you are implementing lots of useless features.
53. David Cancel - @dcancel Checkout my friends at KissMetrics.com to capture your funnel level data.
54. David Cancel - @dcancel Step 3: Cohort Analysis
55. David Cancel - @dcancel This is the “shot caller” of all analyses. Respect.
56. David Cancel - @dcancel Cohort Analysis by Fred Wilson (post)
57. David Cancel - @dcancel Without a cohort analysis you are flying blind.
58. David Cancel - @dcancel Is your churn going up or down?
59. David Cancel - @dcancel You don’t have a clue until you’ve done a cohort analysis.
60. David Cancel - @dcancel Time for some more ranting.
61. David Cancel - @dcancel Data Visualizations are a Waste of Time.
62. David Cancel - @dcancel Don’t use anything except for these 3 charts.
63. David Cancel - @dcancel 80% Frequency
64. David Cancel - @dcancel 80% 15% Frequency
65. David Cancel - @dcancel 80% 15% 5% Frequency
66. David Cancel - @dcancel Focus on your business. Not data.
67. David Cancel - @dcancel This is usually when I get some “data” questions.
68. David Cancel - @dcancel Things clueless people ask ★ What type of algorithms do you use? ★ What metrics should I use? ★ Anything related to a regression analysis. ★ Anything related to data visualization.
69. David Cancel - @dcancel No one cares how smart you are except for your mom.
70. David Cancel - @dcancel Only one thing matters.
71. David Cancel - @dcancel Does anyone give a shit about your dumb idea?
72. David Cancel - @dcancel Thank You! David Cancel - dcancel@dcancel.com