In our experience, enterprises almost never question whether their data analytics solutions can help them do business better. Many enterprises do, however, frequently struggle with how to use these solutions to deliver the results they want. These struggles are about more than just selecting and buying the best powerful data analytics tools. They’re also about building a data-driven culture around these tools. An environment in which users actually use their data products to ask business questions and act on their answers.
To build this environment, enterprises need to achieve what we call the 3As for their data products:
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Awareness. Users need to know about a given tool to use it effectively. It’s an obvious requirement that is often difficult to meet for multiple users across a large organization.
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Adoption. If adopting a promising new tool is time-consuming and tedious, it often just doesn’t happen. Users are busy and don’t want to risk their time on an unproven new solution.
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Acceleration. Enterprise initiatives live and die by the numbers. If returns on investment in a new tool are not materializing quickly enough, it can be difficult to justify moving forward with the overall initiative.
Awareness
Starting a data analytics program? Need help building awareness, increasing data literacy, or encouraging business teams make the most of – or even just start using – their tools?
Adoption
Have analytical tools in place, but your user base is small? Not sure if the tools match the needs of the average user?
Acceleration
Looking to jump-start your analytics initiative and deliver quick time-to-value? Need a rapid step-by-step action plan?
An enterprise may struggle to achieve one or all the 3As for its data products.
Accordingly, we have developed a portfolio of proprietary modular services to help address the challenges involved:
Ideas2Concepts is our 3A service designed to help customers give an idea its first legs and make it investible – quickly.
We help you get there by:
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Understanding your visual requirements via a hands-on workshops with business users and quick product demos. These workshops typically take 2-3 hours and will help us analyze user needs and clearly define the challenge to be solved.
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Ideating around these visual requirements iteratively with stakeholders to find the perfect conceptual design for your product. Here we bring a variety of ideas and best practices based on what we have seen work elsewhere in similar solutions. This step can be completed onsite in as little as 3 days.
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Making a prototype that will show your product’s key visual features, flow, and user interactions. This prototype will accurately reflect the end solution to be developed. You can use it to demonstrate its viability moving forward. We need only 3-5 days to complete this step.
A typical Ideas2Concepts engagement typically lasts no more than 10 days and costs under $10,000.
Here’s an example of the workflows involved in a recent project.
Day 0 – REQUEST
Requestor shares all available material which can be used to evaluate and understand needs, this can include:
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Current state
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Example reports
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Mockups
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Requirements
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Insights: metrics, analysis
DAY 1 – UNDERSTAND
DURATION
1-2 hours workshop with requestor and key stakeholders
ACTIVITIES
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User needs analysis
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Team gets clear understanding of the business problem/need
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Problem statement definition
OUTCOMES
Scoped business opportunity
Day 5 – IDEATE
DURATION
Virtually: 3-5 days virtual
Onsite: 1-2 days
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Visual driven requirements gathering via ideation session
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Ideation workshops to design solution conceptually
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Iterative sessions with business stakeholders and requestor
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Solutions suggested on how similar problems resolved in other solutions delivered
OUTCOMES
Initial design of product to be built
Technology assessment
Day 10 – MAKE
DURATION
3-5 days
ACTIVITIES
Creation of Graphical design including:
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Visual aspect as close as real-life working solution
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Product flow and interactions
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Simulation of interactivity and navigation
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Creation of graphical components for developers
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Iteration with business users
OUTCOMES
Final specs of product including visual concept and iteractivty/navigation
