[7 min read] The difference between a successful digital strategy and a functional data product is the long tail of new relationships.
The win sometimes lands with a sense of quiet inevitability. Like when you stop raking your fingers through a box of puzzle pieces because you feel you’ve found The One, and your glance shifts between the picture on the box-top and the cardboard skeleton in front of you. Suddenly you know that you will bring that cluttered poster of old wine corks, cats or candy wrappers into existence…one piece at a time. Two or three if you “forgot” to shuffle the pieces well enough at the start.
Last week my client, the management team of a leading fitness app with over 450,000 members, launched a brand-new Subscriber data product. The original puzzle seemed simple. No one in the company could really agree on what a Subscriber was, how to measure things like churn, or where to find trustworthy information. But everyone agreed that creating a shared definition and source of Subscriber data is vital to keeping the membership healthy and profitable.
The People Puzzle
Most companies think the puzzle is about code or technology. And most of these companies fail to realize much, if any, value from data. Many of these companies fail too.
The puzzle is about code and technology. But it’s really about people in different departments with different incentives, using different technology and code. In the case of my client, there were at least four disconnected groups using three different technologies…in different ways. Finance had one way of reporting to The Street, Marketing had another way to measure the house file of contacts, and Product was frustrated because they couldn’t connect-the-dots to run the business. Many of the people who understood the code and implemented the technology have left. It was like a jigsaw puzzle where the picture on the box has been torn away in places, and more than a few pieces are missing or mixed-up with another puzzle you left with your grandparents back in Idaho.
So, I worked with the management team to help them find their most valuable voice by harvesting the data, distilling a strategy, and crafting a path forward. Here’s what that looks like:
Harvesting the Data
First, I spoke with each department about the jobs-to-be-done with Subscriber data. For Finance, we spoke about compliance and reporting to The Street. For Marketing, we spoke about different stages of the Customer journey and touchpoints. For Product, we spoke about workouts and measuring Subscriber engagement to forecast retention. Engineers were involved at each step to share, or explore, concerns about the state of data quality and integration. Understanding the jobs-to-be-done is job #1…and this is not the same as gathering requirements or use-cases.
Distilling the Strategy
Second, I distilled the jobs-to-be-done into a focused strategy document and presentation. Not a 150-slide PowerPoint monolith. One theme emerged from all our discussions…the critical need for a single view into the health of the entire Membership Funnel. Unfortunately, any view into the funnel health was nearly impossible due to a highly decentralized analytics organization and disconnected technologies. Understanding how investment upstream cascades into profitability, product engagement, and ultimately retention is critical to managing a subscription-based business.
Crafting the Plan
Third, we crafted a path forward together beginning with the creation of a Subscriber data product. A place where people and machines can go to understand the health of our membership according to a set of governed KPI and metrics. We launched this smaller project with a clear sense of the ROI and without the luxury of any external consultants or additional budget. This was an internal effort led by folks who initially knew little about the data or technological landscape we were dealing with. But they are amazing people and committed to success. After six months of data archeology and re-architecture, this team delivered a refreshed understanding of our membership business performance. And now the team is taking the next step on our path by consolidating the Customer Experience technology stack and connecting these Subscriber data to support personalization. We’ve just started, and I’m excited to see the next 6 months unfold.
The Long Tail of New Behaviors
Delivering a Subscriber data product is awesome, but it’s only part of the victory story. The Win includes the long tail of new behaviors the project creates such as the habit of exploring all of the jobs-to-be-done, and ultimately the creation of new relationships that overcome organizational division. The Win includes new pathways to form agreement and resolve differences.
