Download - Data driven culture
A global survey on the
state of data driven
culture within startups
Contents
SECTION ONE
About Geckoboard 1
SECTION TWO
About Econsultancy 2
SECTION THREE
Foreword 3
SECTION FOUR
Executive Summary 4
SECTION FIVE
Methodology 7
Respondent Profiles 7
SECTION SIX
Findings 9
Data Driven Culture 9
Data Collection 10
Data Communication 15
Decision Making 19
Metrics 19
Optimisation 26
Culture 27
SECTION ONE
About Geckoboard
Geckoboard is a hosted status board
that collects business information from
many online services and customers’ own
data sources, summarises it to distil the
key messages and displays it in a way
that is easy to understand and interpret.
Businesses use status boards to pull
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of a business.
Geckoboard has called itself the “Chartbeat
for everything else” — in reference to the
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on websites. Geckoboard’s rise speaks
of a growing trend among businesses to
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and information into simpler views to be
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presented and consumed.
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Since launching in February 2011,
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1
SECTION TWO
About Econsultancy
Econsultancy is a global independent
community-based publisher, focused
on best practice digital marketing and
ecommerce, and used by over 400,000
internet professionals every month.
Our hub has 185,000+ subscribers
worldwide from clients, agencies and
suppliers alike with over 90% subscriber
retention rate. We help our subscribers build
their internal capabilities via a combination
of research reports and how-to guides,
training and development, consultancy,
face-to-face conferences, forums and
professional networking.
For the last 10 years, our resources have
helped subscribers learn, make better
decisions, build business cases, find the
best suppliers, accelerate their careers and
lead the way in best practice and innovation.
Econsultancy has offices in London, New
York, Singapore and Sydney,and we are a
leading provider of digital marketing training
and consultancy. We trained over 5,000
marketers and ran over 200 public training
courses in 2012.
Join Econsultancy today to learn what’s
happening in digital marketing – and what
works.
Call us to find out more on +44 (0)20 7269
1450 (London) or +1 212 971 0630 (New York).
You can also contact us online.
2
SECTION THREE
Foreword
Geckoboard is pleased to present the
results of the first Global Report on Data
Driven Culture Within Startups, which was
designed to offer insights on how startups
are dealing with an ever growing influx of
data and the key challenges faced when
building organisations that embrace data as
much as intuition.
Data driven decision-making has been
fuelled by terms like ‘Lean Startup’ and
‘Lean Analytics’. Eric Ries coined the term
‘lean startup’ in 2008 and since then, it has
grown in popularity among entrepreneurs.
The term has now become a movement that
has brought innovative thinking around how
to design, build and develop sustainable
businesses based on customer feedback.
As the lean movement evolves, the
emphasis on data driven decision-making
becomes more relevant. This report offers
an overview on how startups are using
data, how metrics are being chosen,
how resources are being assigned, the
importance of data visibility and the most
popular tools for data communication.
The report reveals that businesses are,
in general, actively looking to improve
their efforts towards building a data driven
culture. So far, most of the efforts have been
made in data gathering and analytics, with
very little progress in data communication
and mechanisms to ensure that data is acted
upon. Surprisingly, most respondents do
not feel confident about their KPIs and their
current challenge is to understand what the
key drivers of the business are, to ensure
that they build the right context for data
analysis.
We hope that you find the results of this
survey to be informative, and thank you
again to those who participated. We look
forward to your participation in the future.
3
SECTION FOUR
Executive Summary
This report explores the general attitude of startups towards metrics and data communication.
It offers an overview on:
1 How startups are gathering, analysing and communicating data.
2 How much time and resources are spent on analytics.
3 What challenges are involved in building a data driven culture and monitoring the
right metrics.
4 Data visibility and its impact on decision-making.
This report is based on a global survey of 368 startups carried out by Geckoboard and
Econsultancy.
We would like to thank all the organisations that took part in the survey and those who
contributed with insights, analysis and valuable comments.
4
How startups are gathering, analysing and communicating data.
How much time and resources are spent on analytics.
What challenges are involved in building a data driven culture and monitoring the
right metrics.
Data visibility and its impact on decision-making.
The findings of this research can be summarised as follows:
SECTION FOUR: EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The vast majority of respondents
identified themselves as data driven
businesses; only 5% of respondents
stated that data is not a priority within their
organisation.
Intuition is still highly valued in decision-
making. Despite the rapid adoption
and evangelisation of the lean startup
methodology (see Section 3) and the
constant emphasis on data collection and
measurement within the startup community,
it is surprising to find that intuition and
experience are still heavy components of
the decision-making process. Only 27%
of respondents believe that data is crucial
when it comes to decision-making.
There is a marked lack of confidence
around data and metrics. Almost half of
the respondents (49%) do not feel confident
about the metrics they are currently
monitoring. Based on analysis of data
gathered in this report, this group is also
less likely to have processes in place to
ensure that data is understood and acted
upon.
Metrics democracy. In more cases than
not, respondents who choose metrics in a
collaborative manner felt more confident
about their metrics in comparison to those
who do not involve the team.
Data vs. Data communication: 44% of
startups spend substantially more on data
gathering than on data communication,
with 34% of respondents spending equally
on both. This highlights the importance of
developing mechanisms to guarantee that
data is collected with a purpose and that
key insights can be derived from it. The
improvement of data communication can
lead to a better understanding of what is
important to measure and what is not.
“If you can't explain
it simply, you don't
understand it well
enough.”
ALBERT EINSTEIN
5
The survey also showed that real time data and dashboards are increasingly being
adopted by startups as a communication tool although traditional formats like Excel are still
the most popular.
Despite the investment on tracking, data gathering and analytics, 59% of respondents do
not have processes in place to make sure data is understood and acted upon.
SECTION FOUR: EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
6
SECTION FIVE
Methodology
This report is based on a global survey of
368 business professionals working in the
startup community, but also included larger
businesses so that general attitudes towards
data management were represented. The
survey was live during January and February
2013.
Geckoboard promoted the survey to its
customer data base and via social media.
Econsultancy also promoted the survey via
social media. The incentive for taking part in
the survey was a complimentary copy of the
report.
If you have any questions about the
research and methodology, please email
Sofia Quintero at Geckoboard (sofia@
geckoboard.com).
5.1 RESPONDENT PROFILES
A total of 368 business professionals took
part in the survey. The greatest proportion
of respondents work in the internet/software
industry (42%), though a range of other
industries are represented.
Respondent organisations are primarily
based in North America, although Asia, Latin
America, Western Europe and specifically
the United Kingdom are also significantly
represented.
The following chart shows that the
survey respondents are typically senior
within their organisations, with over 70%
classifying themselves as founders, CTOs,
CEOs, directors, or presidents of their
organisations.
7
FIGURE 1: WHAT IS YOUR POSITION IN THE ORGANISATION?
FOUNDER / CEO
FOUNDER / CTO
OTHER
DIRECTOR
DEVELOPER
MANAGER ANALYTICS
EXECUTIVE
MANAGER MARKETING
PRESIDENT
ADMIN / SUPPORT
0% 10% 20% 40%30%
The aim of the survey was to look at the
attitude of startups towards data collection
and analysis; therefore the survey was
marketed towards respondents from
companies with less than 20 employees.
Figure 2 shows the size of the responding
companies. More than 80% of responding
companies have less than 100 employees,
reflecting the startup focus of the report.
FIGURE 2: WHAT IS THE SIZE OF YOUR ORGANISATION?
30
23
16
9
2
1-4 5-9 10-19 20-99 100-499
500-9,999
10,000+
NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES
NU
MB
ER
OF
RE
SP
ON
DE
NT
S
8
SECTION SIX
Findings
6.1 DATA DRIVEN CULTURE
Definition: A ‘Data Driven Organisation’ is
one that cultivates a culture where data is
valued as much as intuition and experience;
where data is visible and accessible to
everybody. A data driven organisation
uses technology to communicate data
in a clear and approachable way. In this
kind of organisation, decision-making is a
collaborative process and metrics are set
based on very specific business goals.
FIGURE 3: BASED ON THE DEFINITION ABOVE, WOULD YOU CONSIDER YOUR ORGANISATION TO BE
DATA DRIVEN?
Yes 26% - since the very beginning we made sure data was part of our culture
No 7% - this is not a priority in my organisation; only management make decisions
Yes 44% - we have made great improvement and are still working on it
9
SECTION SIX: FINDINGS - DATA DRIVEN CULTURE
Figure 3 shows that the majority of
respondents not only understand the
importance of building a data driven
culture, but are also proactively looking into
mechanisms that will allow them to improve
this area. A total of 70% of respondents
consider their organisation to be data-
driven, with only 7% of respondents
believing that being data driven is not a
priority.
6.2 DATA COLLECTION
As the industry moves forwards with new
technologies able to track data in very
granular and sophisticated ways, there
is also a need for simplification. With
ever growing data points available to
organisations, the illusion of having all the
data needed in order to make decisions
starts to blur with information overload.
FIGURE 4: TO YOUR BEST KNOWLEDGE, HOW MANY THIRD PARTY SERVICES OR SYSTEMS DOES
YOUR ORGANISATION CURRENTLY USE TO GATHER DATA?
60%
45%
30%
15%
0%
PE
RC
EN
TA
GE
OF
RE
SP
ON
DE
NT
S
1-4 4-9 10+ DON’T KNOW
60%
45%
30%
15%
0%
NUMBER OF SERVICES
10
SECTION SIX: FINDINGS - DATA COLLECTION
Nearly a fifth (18%) of respondents in the
survey said that they used more than 10
different services to gather data, revealing
the wealth of data that can be collected. The
list of potential metrics available to decision
makers represents a constant challenge
when it comes to executing a focused
assessment of business performance.
Google Analytics alone offers over 200
pre-defined dimensions and metrics to
choose from and combine. Choosing the
right metrics within the right context is one
of the most crucial tasks for data driven
organisations.
FIGURE 5: HOW MANY FULL TIME EMPLOYEES DOES YOUR COMPANY CURRENTLY HAVE WORKING ON
DATA GATHERING, ANALYSIS AND DISTRIBUTION ROLES?
60%
45%
30%
15%
0%
PE
RC
EN
TA
GE
OF
RE
SP
ON
DE
NT
S
1-4 4-9 10+ NONE
NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES
77% of respondents have at least one full-
time employee working on data gathering
and analysis.
11
SECTION SIX: FINDINGS - DATA COLLECTION
Figure 6 shows the number of employees
working on data, against the size of
the company. As expected, the larger
organisations are more likely to have a
higher number of data-dedicated
employees, however also reveals that a
surprisingly large proportion of respondents
have no employees working on data, even
in organisations with up to 100 employees.
FIGURE 6: THE NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES FOCUSED ON DATA, CHARTED BY THE TOTAL NUMBER OF
EMPLOYEES IN THE ORGANISATION.
60%
45%
30%
15%
0%
1-4
SIZE OF ORGANSIATION (EMPLOYEES)
5-9 10-19 20-99 100-499 500-9,999
10,000
Based on respondents’ comments data
collection and analysis is not always the
responsibility of a dedicated staff member,
being a shared responsibility across multiple
teams and with roles extended to include
data management. This could affect how
respondents were counting the number
of data-focused employees, with it being
part of the role of many, but the sole role
of none. It is evident that software is also
relied upon by many respondents to do
the data gathering and analysis, but many
organisations assign no specific person to
pull insights from this analysis.
BETWEEN 1-5 BETWEEN 5-10 10+ NONE
12
SECTION SIX: FINDINGS - DATA COLLECTION
RESPONDENT COMMENTS: ‘HOW MANY FULL-TIME EMPLOYEES DOES YOUR COMPANY CURRENTLY
HAVE WORKING ON DATA GATHERING, ANALYSIS AND DISTRIBUTION ROLES?
“I do product, and
one other guy does
core-business metrics.”
“This is distributed
across the team.”
“There is no dedicated
staff – it is a shared
responsibility.”
“Support and Services
focus on customer
data and our software
itself is geared
towards data analysis
and gathering.”
“One person
is delegated
responsibility and
accountability for this.
However, it is not a
full-time equivalent
aspect.”
“We can’t afford a
salary of £35k+ to
analyse our data;
many of us have
managed people and
roles which do this
kind of work. We have
extended our roles
to do this, as this will
drive decisions in the
company.”
“Right now I am the only person. I am using software
to try to do automatically, such as the integrations with
Sugar CRM and other apps to help do auto tracking.”
13
SECTION SIX: FINDINGS - DATA COLLECTION
FIGURE 7: WHAT IS THE BALANCE BETWEEN RESOURCES SPENT IN GATHERING DATA (BIG DATA) AND
COMMUNICATING DATA (REAL TIME METRIC DASHBOARDS, REPORTS)?
44% - We spend substantially more in data gathering
22% - We spend substantially more in data communication
34% - We spend equally on both
Data gathering rather than data
communication seems to be the priority
among startups with 44% of respondents
spending more on data gathering. Only
22% put more emphasis on how data is
communicated. It is surprising that only
34% of respondents put equal emphasis in
both processes. Data becomes irrelevant
if organisations cannot make sense of it or
communicate insights clearly throughout the
organisation.
14
6.3 DATA COMMUNICATION
FIGURE 8: WHAT IS THE MOST COMMON FORMAT FOR DATA COMMUNICATION IN YOUR
ORGANISATION?
32% - Dashboards or real time display technology
30% - Excel Spreadsheets
24% - Reports exported directly from third party systems and applications
8% - Powerpoint presentations
6% - Other
Excel spreadsheets and dashboards are
seen to be the preferred tools used to
share data within organisations. Real-time
technology has been rapidly gaining in
popularity among startups due to its ability
to rapidly show data, which is vital in a
business as agile and changeable as a
startup.
Based on comments provided by
respondents, other tools and formats used
to share data among teams are: Google
Docs, Trello and proprietary tools and
dashboards.
Given the volume of metrics that can
be tracked and gathered, it is crucial
for startups to find appropriate tools to
communicate that data and make sure it is
understood throughout the organisation,
and, vitally, that it is acted upon.
15
SECTION SIX: FINDINGS - DATA COMMUNICATION
FIGURE 9: ARE THERE ANY PROCESSES IN PLACE TO MAKE SURE THAT DATA IS UNDERSTOOD AND ACTED
UPON?
60%
45%
30%
15%
0%
PE
RC
EN
TA
GE
OF
RE
SP
ON
DE
NT
S
YES NO
Respondents were asked if they had any
processes in place to make sure that data
is understood and acted upon; the majority
answered no. It is surprising to find that even
though 70% of the respondents consider
their organisations to be data driven, the
same organisations are also typically
currently lacking mechanisms to make sure
that data is understood and actionable.
Below are some examples of processes
given by responding companies. Meetings
and verbal discussions are popular to
decipher data, with dashboards and KPIs
also used to prompt discussion and reviews.
16
SECTION SIX: FINDINGS - DATA COMMUNICATION
RESPONDENT COMMENTS: ‘ARE THERE ANY PROCESSES IN PLACE TO MAKE SURE THAT DATA IS UNDER-
STOOD AND ACTED UPON?’
“Analysts and managers
review reports.”
“Bonuses based on key
metrics”
“Creation of a data
warehouse”
“Custom dashboard”
“Tied directly to feature
releases, watching
metrics move, metric-
driven goals, etc.”
“Trending service usage
prompts management
review.”
“Verbal report out, each
section is discussed for
clarity”
“We are looking at
dashboards to make
data accessible”
“Weekly meetings to
comment on metrics
(founders and investors);
benchmarking cross-
portfolio”
“We write blog posts. We set OKRs (objectives and key
results) that are basically hypotheses that require data
to prove them (or disprove them) within a set period of
time.”
17
SECTION SIX: FINDINGS - DATA COMMUNICATION
Figure 9 shows a chart of the data in Figure
8, combined with data from the question:
‘Would you consider your organisation to
be data driven?’ (Figure 3). It is interesting to
see that 12% of respondents said that their
organisations were data driven, and had
been since the very beginning, but at the
same time did not have any processes in
place to make sure that data is understood
and acted upon.
It may be the case that these companies
analyse their data in a more fluid way, in
meetings and ad hoc by individuals, rather
than having stringent processes in place
for acting upon data. Due to the nature of a
startup, these processes may not have yet
been put in place, but the case may be that
in some companies a lot of data is being
collected, without much meaningful insight
being gained from it.
FIGURE 10: CROSS TABULATION ANALYSIS OF ‘WOULD YOU CONSIDER YOUR ORGANISATION TO BE
DATA DRIVEN?’ (FIGURE 3), AGAINST FIGURE 9: ‘ARE THERE ANY PROCESSES IN PLACE TO MAKE
SURE THAT DATA IS UNDERSTOOD AND ACTED UPON?’
Are there any processes in place to make sure that data is understood and acted upon?
Would you consider
your organisation to
be data driven?
Yes No
No, but we are mobilizing resources
and efforts to improvein this area
8% 15%
No, this is not a priority in my
organization; only management
makes decisions
1% 4%
Yes, we have made great improvements and
are still working on it19% 27%
Yes, since the very beginning we made
sure data was part of our culture
13% 12%
18
60%
45%
30%
15%
0%
6.4 DECISION MAKING - METRICS
FIGURE 11: IS YOUR ORGANISATION CONFIDENT THAT IT IS MEASURING THE RIGHT METRICS
AND KPIS?
60%
45%
30%
15%
0%
PE
RC
EN
TA
GE
OF
RE
SP
ON
DE
NT
S
YES NO
Almost half of the respondents do not
feel confident about the metrics they are
tracking. When viewed in the context of
a startup culture, these results are not all
that surprising. Most of the respondent
comments on this question are around the
need to be flexible and open minded to
changes. It is part of the lean startup culture
to avoid making assumptions without having
a way to prove them. Being confident
about the current metrics could be, to
some companies, like declaring that the
organisation has stopped learning.
This is also reflected in Figure 11, where
61% of respondents said that the key
challenge in choosing the right metrics
was in understanding the key drivers of
the business. Uncertainty is at the core of
startups so being flexible to test and try
different approaches to measurement is
more a survival practice than an option.
Comments from the survey respondents
supported this theory, with many stating that
they were still evolving and that there was
always more data that they could look at.
Agility is a key requirement for startups, with
changing metrics being part of learning and
evolving for the benefit of the business.
19
SECTION SIX: FINDINGS - DECISION MAKING - METRICS
RESPONDANT COMMENTS: ‘IS YOUR ORGANISATION CONFIDENT THAT IT IS MEASURING THE RIGHT
METRICS AND KPIS?’
“We could always
measure more!!”“You never can be sure
until enough data has
arrived and fine-tuning is
always needed.”
“At least confident that
we’re evolving in the
right direction.”
“I’d say yes... but always
learning new ones. So
75% confident.”
“Metrics are under
continual review for
relevance and validity.”
“Reasonably, there’s
always space for
improvements.”
“We are in the early
stages - trying to
tackle one area of our
operations at a time.”“We’re still in our search
mode.”
“Working on switching
from vanity metrics to
pirate metrics.”
“Can’t ever be totally
confident, we’re always
trying to improve our
metrics”
“We’re doing our best
as we remain agile.”
“Our KPIs are in
significant flux as the
company is still in a
development phase.”
“We are confident that we have some good KPIs but
are confident they can always be better. We evolve as
we learn more.”
“We’re constantly
iterating, whilst
expanding
geographically and in
scale, so it would be
hard to ever say ‘yes’.”
SECTION SIX: FINDINGS - DECISION MAKING - METRICS
A cross tabulation analysis of the questions
‘Is your organisation confident that it is
measuring the right metrics and KPIs?’ and
‘Are there any processes in place to make
sure that data is understood and acted
upon?’ is shown below. There is a lack of
confidence around data and metrics, and
the group that is not confident that they are
measuring the right metrics, also seem to
be less likely to have processes in place
in ensure that data is understood and
acted upon. A third (33%) of respondents
answered ‘No’ to both questions.
FIGURE 12: CROSS TABULATION ANALYSIS OF FIGURE 9 AND FIGURE 11.
Are there any processes in place to make sure that data is understood and acted upon?
Is your organisation
confident that it is
measuring the right
metrics and KPIs?
Yes No
Yes 26% 26%
No 16% 33%
21
SECTION SIX: FINDINGS - DECISION MAKING - METRICS
FIGURE 13: HOW DOES YOUR ORGANISATION DECIDE WHICH METRICS AND KPIS ARE IMPORTANT?
60%
45%
30%
15%
0%
PE
RC
EN
TA
GE
OF
RE
SP
ON
DE
NT
S
IT IS A COLLABORATIVE
PROCESS. EVERYBODY
CONTRIBUTES
TOP LEVEL MANAGEMENT
MAKES THE DECISION
NON-STRUCTURED, KPI’S
CHOSEN BY DIFFERENT
PEOPLE. CASE-TO-CASE
BASIS
ONLY SPECIFIC
DEPARTMENTS GET
INVOLVED
Just over half (51%) of respondents embrace
collaborative thinking around metrics.
A quarter (25%) still depend on the top
management level to define key metrics
and 19% have a non-structured/informal
approach to metrics management. The
remaining 5% choose metrics in isolation,
potentially by department.
A collaborative approach to metrics
seems to be an important characteristic
of data driven organisations, with 51% of
respondents deciding their metrics and
KPIs through a joined-up process. As seen
in the comments provided in Figure 5,
responsibility for data gathering and analysis
is often shared among several people in the
organisation, and it therefore makes sense
to choose metrics as a team and not in
isolation.
22
SECTION SIX: FINDINGS - DECISION MAKING - METRICS
FIGURE 14: CROSS TABULATION ANALYSIS OF ‘HOW DOES YOUR ORGANISATION DECIDE WHICH
METRICS AND KPIS ARE IMPORTANT?’ AGAINST FIGURE 11: ‘IS YOUR ORGANISATION CONFIDENT
THAT IT IS MEASURING THE RIGHT METRICS AND KPIS?’
Is your organisation confident that it is measuring the right metrics and KPIs?
How does your
organisation decide
which metrics and KPIs
are important?’
Yes No
Top-Level management makes
the decision11% 14%
It is a collaborative process. Everybody
contributes.31% 20%
Only specific depart-ments get involved in
measurement2% 3%
It is non-structured, KPIs are chosen by different
people in a case-by-case basis
7% 12%
Figure 13 shows that respondents who
choose metrics in a collaborative manner
feel more confident about their metrics in
comparison to those who do not involve the
team. ‘It is a collaborative process’ is the
only category in which more respondents
answered that they were confident in their
metrics (31%) than those that said they were
not confident (20%).
23
SECTION SIX: FINDINGS - DECISION MAKING - METRICS
FIGURE 15: WHAT WOULD YOU SAY IS THE TOP CHALLENGE IN CHOOSING THE RIGHT METRICS?
[RESPONDENTS COULD SELECT MORE THAN ONE OPTION]
0% 20% 40% 80%60%
UNDERSTANDING THE KEY DRIVERS OF THE BUSINESS
HAVING THE RIGHT TRACKING IN PLACE
DEFINING PRIORITIES AND BUSINESS GOALS
HAVING THE RIGHT CONTEXT
LACK OF SKILLS AND RESOURCES
HAVING CONSENSUS WITHIN THE ORGANIZATION
The majority of respondents said that a key
challenge in choosing the right metrics to
measure was in understanding what the key
drivers of the business are (61%), followed by
having the right tracking in place (42%) and
defining priorities and business goals (39%).
The nature of startups implies that historic
data is not always available, so it is
challenging to identify the key drivers of
the business when, in some cases, the
business model has not been fully defined
or implemented. However, concentrating
on one key metric can help to minimize
‘paralysis by analysis’. This is what the
authors of Lean analytics call ‘The One
Metric That Matters’. They explain:
“The One Metric That Matters is the one number you’re completely focused on
above everything else for the stage you’re at. Looking at CLV (customer lifetime
value) isn’t meaningful when you’re validating a problem, but it might be the right
metric to focus on as you’re approaching product/market fit. It most certainly is not
a vanity metric!”
24
60%
45%
30%
15%
0%
1 “Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) is a formula that helps a marketing manager arrive at the monetary value associated with long term relationships with any given customer, revealing just how much a customer relationship is worth over a period of time” http://hbsp.harvard.edu/multimedia/flashtools/cltv/index.html
SECTION SIX: FINDINGS - DECISION MAKING - METRICS
Having the right context, skills and
consensus seem to be important but not as
crucial as being clear on what the business
direction is.
FIGURE 16: WOULD YOU SAY THAT YOUR ORGANISATION HAS MISSED BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES IN
THE LAST 12 MONTHS AS A CONSEQUENCE OF NOT HAVING ENOUGH DATA VISIBILITY?
60%
45%
30%
15%
0%
PE
RC
EN
TA
GE
OF
RE
SP
ON
DE
NT
S
YES MAYBE NO
A third (34%) of respondents believe that
they have missed business opportunities as
a consequence of not having enough data
visibility, and 47% answered ‘maybe’.
It is interesting to note that respondents
who said that their organisations had
mechanisms to ensure data was acted
upon also said that they have, or may have,
missed business opportunities in the last
12 months as a consequence of not having
enough data visibility.
There seems to be some inconsistency
in the perceived effectiveness of
those mechanisms, and it is clear that
organisations see data collection as almost
unlimited, with many commenting that it
is impossible to measure everything,
so missed business opportunities are
somewhat inevitable.
25
6.5: DECISION MAKING - OPTIMISATION
FIGURE 17: HOW OFTEN DOES YOUR ORGANISATION REVISE AND CHANGE ITS METRICS OR KPI FOCUS?
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
PE
RC
EN
TA
GE
OF
RE
SP
ON
DE
NT
S
WEEKLY MONTHLY 6 MONTHS YEARLY NEVER
Respondents were asked the frequency
in which they change their metrics or KPIs
focus. 37% said every 6 months, and 27%
said every month. For startups, the key
metrics for driving revenue, profitability and
productivity need to be established and
understood across the business.
Only once everyone understands the
key metrics, can they collectively work to
optimise them. The frequency with which
this is done depends on the industry and
service provided by the organisation, but
revision of metrics and KPIs is important to
ensure a business is collecting the right data
and acting on it.
26
60%
45%
30%
15%
0%
6.6: DECISION MAKING - CULTURE
FIGURE 18: ARE EMPLOYEES IN YOUR ORGANISATION ENCOURAGED TO BACK UP THEIR DECISION
MAKING WITH DATA?
60%
45%
30%
15%
0%
PE
RC
EN
TA
GE
OF
RE
SP
ON
DE
NT
S
YES, THIS IS
CRUCIAL
YES, BUT WE ALSO
BELIEVE IN INTUITION
AND EXPERIENCE ON
ITS OWN
NO SOMETIMES
When asked if employees are encouraged
to back up their decision making with data,
51% of respondents said that they also
believe in experience and intuition when
it comes to decision-making. Just over a
quarter of respondents (27%) said data is
crucial.
The lean startup and lean analytics
community would strongly agree with
the latter quarter of respondents. One
of the key mantras of the lean startup
methodology is to base all decisions
on metrics, assumptions and validation.
Feelings and intuition are not necessarily
part of the equation. However, as startups
try to move fast and manage uncertainty,
some decisions are inevitably made based
on experience and the data availability and
gut feelings. The challenge will always be in
establishing the right balance.
27
SECTION SIX: FINDINGS - DECISION MAKING - CULTURE
FIGURE 19: WHAT IS THE BIGGEST CHALLENGE YOU HAVE FACED WHEN BUILDING A DATA DRIVEN
CULTURE?
0% 10% 20% 40%30%
LACK OF RESOURCES FOR THE RIGHT DATA COMMUNICATION TOOLS
ATTITUDE: DATA NOT CONSIDERED A PRIORITY
DATA OWNERSHIP. UNCLEAR WHO SHOULD GATHER, ANALYSE AND REPORT
LACK OF RESOURCE TO INVEST IN TRAINING
LACK OF CLARITY ABOUT WHAT DATA CAN BE DISTRIBUTED OR NOT
INTERNAL POLITICS. PEOPLE REFUSED TO SHARE INFORMATION
The SaaS data communication industry in
fairly new and even though status boards
technology and real time solutions are
emerging rapidly, the benefits of data
visualization and visibility are still widely
unknown.
Respondents were asked to select the
biggest challenges they have faced when
building a data driven culture. Resources
were a key issue; 37% of respondents said
that a lack of resources to invest in the
right data communication tools was their
main challenge, with 10% citing a lack of
resources to invest in training.
A fifth (20%) of respondents blamed
attitudes towards data for difficulties in
creating a data driven culture. Lack of clarity
was also a challenge; specifically in data
ownership (18%) and data distribution issues
(10%).
In an industry where data is needed to
analyse performance and rapidly make
changes to remain agile, having the
resources to invest in data communication
tools is important, as without the data,
the drivers of the business cannot be
ascertained, and performance cannot be
improved. The lean startup methodology
would advocate that organisations should
be built on their data, and therefore
investing in resources for data collection
and communication is vital.
28
THANKS TO EVERYONE WHO RESPONDED TO THE SURVEY.
COMMENTS OR QUESTIONS - EMAIL [email protected]
©2013 GECKOBOARD/ECONSULTANCY - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
NO PART OF THIS PUBLICATION MAY BE REPRODUCED OR TRANSMITTED IN ANY FORM OR BY ANY MEANS,
ELECTRONIC OR MECHANICAL, INCLUDING PHOTOCOPY, RECORDING OR ANY INFORMATION STORAGE AND
RETRIEVAL SYSTEM, WITHOUT PRIOR PERMISSION IN WRITING FROM THE PUBLISHER.
A global survey on the
state of data driven
culture within startups
