The 37th Edition - On Razors That Simplify Decision-Making, Mix Shift & Making Data Influential
Did you know that if a Netflix user doesn't find anything after 90 seconds of searching, they will quit the app?
NFLX's most successful tool for influencing a viewer's decision is the thumbnail art. NFLX invests a lot of money optimising them because users will only glance at one for 1.8 seconds. (source)
Read: 7 Ways to Make Data* Influential
I used to be an analyst once. I know how hard it is to be in the middle of the shitstorm when execs need answers - but very specific, good answers only.
You share the data with people, point out non-obvious things. At best, you get crickets. Worse, you get pushback.
Brand campaigns “haven’t been working”? It’s just bad attribution, try again.
The A/B test didn’t succeed? Yes, but look at the intermittent spikes in Indonesian markets. Looks like it won there. Recalculate.
Most “delivery” functions suffer from this: companies hire specialists to do a special job, but want the job to stop at specific skills, not their extension (individual, patterns they’ve seen, insight from a different perspective, new frameworks that uncover new ideas).
Executives often don’t want the truth.
It’s a complicated world, what can I say.
There has to be a way to reign it in.
So here are 7 ways to end this BS:
* “Data” can really be replaced with any other function (Design, Product, Engineering, etc.)
Watch: Strategy Is Not Planning
We just finished another gruelling round of setting OKRs.
Once more I had to check myself: what common traps are we falling for, again and again?
You know I’m big on strategy. But it’s such an elusive concept, that we might not always notice when we lose the essence in the moment.
Here’s how to not confuse strategy with planning:
Remember
When you don't create things, you become defined by your tastes rather than ability. Your tastes only narrow & exclude people.
So create.
(source)
3.7 billion people will go to work tomorrow.
97.35% will burnout because they don’t know the difference between problems that they need to solve and problems that they care about being solved.
Be one of the 2.65% that get it.
(source)
Consider
Mix Shift
When analysing cohort changes in metrics, remember the concept of “mix shift”. Your metric’s value might not change from time 1 to time 2, but underneath it, it can fluctuate for its parts. Often, the metric does change, and we run around worried something’s wrong, when in reality, it’s the mix that changed and caused a shift in the metric. It’s important to look beyond the metric and discern actual change vs. mix shift. (source)
Knowledge Spectrum
Coined by Jared Spool, it’s a valuable concept that can explain the challenge at the core of many UI troubles. Your users have a certain level of knowledge on the spectrum, while your product creates a gap in that knowledge. So your UI/landing page/product feature needs to close that gap.
(source)
20+ Razors That Will Simplify Decision-Making
Know the difference between an Arena Razor and the Occam’s Razor? (source)
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