Becoming More Data Driven

jherrin

Hello!

I thought I'd ask this community of leaders as I've stepped into a management role for about 2 years now and really want to improve my ability to be more data driven and also capable of creating stories with data.

What would some of your recommendations be for someone who is newer into management and tools you have learned to help create helpful stories and also present them to internal stakeholders?

Jeffrey Kushmerek

Hi there-

First off, you need to know how to forecast. That is the number #1 "working with data" story that you need to be able to do.

After that, its being able to slice the data via segments and see the behaviors in each segment

Seth Dovev

To build on top of Jeffrey's comments...Some additional data or KPI's to leverage:

Forecast: ARR, # expected new Logos, ACV

Product Adoption: MAU, Product Utilization

Customer Outcomes: Consider aligning by ICPs, Verticals, Use Cases, and Business Objectives (could be per product/offering)

Gross Retention

Net Retention

LTV

TTV

Time to Onboard

NPS & CSAT

CSQL: closed won rate and ARR

Customer Testimonials: Gong recording/snippet can be quickly leveraged and repurposed (to tell stories internally) or with their approval externally

Tools: CRM (SFDC, Hubspot) reporting, Sigma (BI & Visualization), CS Platforms (Most should be able to integrate with your existing tech stack)

*Consider measuring the above against any/all of your customer segments, and how they're defined

jherrin

Thank you @Seth Dovev and @Jeffrey Kushmerek for the responses! Do you both work out of Excel/Google Sheets often? Or have you just leveraged other softwares in your career?

Javed Maqsood

There are two really good answers to this thread. Some of my thoughts on connecting the dots -

• Determine which data or KPIs are important to you, for your product and business.
• Target to measure and track those KPIs through your data layer, whether this is coming from CRM, CS platform, analytics, internal systems etc. Ideally, you have these layers connected/integrated in your CS platform and you can generate reports / dashboards directly from there.
• Make some assumptions on forecast and then validate through this framework, based on the data coming from the field
• Stay in touch with customers to ensure that you are getting the right signals from them about the state of the business. Ensure that these signals are translated appropriately in the data layer feeding your assumptions, models and forecasts.

Seth Dovev

@jherrin

It all depends on the technology infrastructure that your company has in place. In my experience, I've utilized both Mode and Sigma to create visual representations of data that was gathered through a DataWarehouse (Snowflake), which in turn had integrated information from a CRM, a customer success platform, and product data. This approach helps to guarantee that there is only one reliable source of data. However, in some cases, I've had to be resourceful and resort to using spreadsheets. If this is the route you need to take, it's crucial to make sure that you have accurate and linked data that can be shared with all relevant stakeholders. This will ensure that everyone can understand where the data points being tracked are sourced from.

Ed Powers

@jherrin, I strongly recommend you build your knowledge of basic statistics. Data visualization is NOT data analysis--simply putting up a chart in Tableau, PowerBI, Looker, etc. will give you misleading information.

Why? Most of what we see in the numbers is just random noise, not meaningful signals. You need a working knowledge of how the numbers work to be able to tell them apart. And any insights you seek will be hidden from you. This includes how your team actually impacts any of the metrics @Seth Dovev has outlined above. Showing credible cause-and-effect relationships between what you do and what matters is the essence of a good story.

I teach a course on how to do all of this. If you're interested in learning more, feel free to reach out.

Ed