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because marketers want roi, but avoid defining what that is. You’d think it might be cost per acquisition, or customer lifetime value, or revenue. But often, KPIs are less about business results, and more about media performance.
there’s a fear of small numbers Marketers worry about the signal-to-noise ratio. The smaller the sample, the more they worry about noise (wrong people, inaccuracies or untruths, groupthink, etc.) So they compensate with bigger sample sizes. But more numbers often make more noise.
The CEO’s Kids “I keep a lot of kids around me and ask them questions and peek around the corner when they think I'm not listening. My master plan was I had a lot of kids. I have six kids. Three girls that are six, a 15-year-old, 18-year-old and 22-year-old. I have the perfect research team in my house." http://acupofteawithphd.wordpress.com/2013/06/19/live-from-cannes-cannes-lions-2013-so-farpart-4-its-diddy/
over targeting leads us astray “[M]ost companies with a practiced discipline of listening to their best customers and identifying new products that promise greater profitability and growth are rarely able to build a case for investing in disruptive technologies until it is too late.” - Clay Christensen, The Innovator’s Dilemma
research ignores switchers, rejectors, fringe & new users “Generally, disruptive technologies underperform established products in mainstream markets. But they have other features that a few fringe (and generally new) customers value.” - Clay Christensen, The Innovator’s Dilemma
what is a lean company for? 1. To specify customer value. 2. To identify & implement the actions that create value. 3. To remove anything that doesn’t create value. 4. To analyze the results (and repeat).
why does feedback & customer pull matter? Feedback and testing (a.k.a., research) help teams settle questions and make decisions based on evidence not preferences. Continuous feedback helps teams see progress.
theory v. information “Who needs theory when you have so much information? But this is categorically the wrong attitude to take toward forecasting, especially… where the data is so noisy. Statistical inferences are much stronger when backed up by theory or at least some deeper thinking about their root causes.”
empower the research manager We have to transform the research manager from a project manager into a Scrum master. Their role is to remove obstacles to progress, and to facilitate communication. Their responsibility to the team is to facilitate hypothesis testing, and to create opportunities to challenge assumptions.
forget the horse’s mouth Don’t count on users to make your decisions for you - that’s not their job.
Don’t let the report be the end of your learning process - it’s just a way to memorialize what you’ve learned and provide a reference when you encounter similar issues again.
data should make us more empathetic If we design for data that helps us make decisions, that helps us create value for our customers, and that helps us develop empathy for people so deep that we can anticipate solutions to problems they can’t yet express… That will enable the kind of analysis sufficiently advanced to be indistinguishable from magic.
farrahtde
morganepeng
bermonpainter
smashingmag
akmur
revolveconf
edds
jensimmons
trallard
reverentgeek
philnash
scottboms
paulrobertlloyd