Use Data to Make Better Decisions

 How Measuring Differently Helps You Stand Out

In a digital world, information is everywhere. At work, at home or at play, you have more access to information than ever. Use it. Below you will find some things I have learned leveraging data to keep making improvements in anything I do.

Data is not something only for the office. When you realize how much information is out there, your world starts to change.

Feedback is the secret to success.

Google, Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Tik Tok - they all provide services. The platforms and devices aren't the only reason their are winning. Data is their real advantage.

It should be yours as well.

Measure What Matters

Whatever it is that you are about to do, if there is a path in front of that needs to grow or get better you HAVE to think about what to measure.

Some of what you need to measure is easy to understand. These are the things that everyone else is doing. Those core key performance indicators that start the journey.

Here are some examples:

• Number of followers, email subscribers, website views, reads
• Number of sales, order value, unique customers
• Caloric density, running or walking pace, how many sets, how much weight

The goal of the core KPIs is always to give you context.

That data that starts to get interesting are the things that matter more to you. They are the ones that relate specifically to your business, your journey.

How to Identify the Information That's Important to You

This is going to sound stupidly simple. The data that's important to you is what supports your "Why's".

Why am I not getting views on a Monday?

Why can't finish my run?

Why am I putting on weight?

Why did we miss that customer delivery time?

Why are people not buying my course?

Always start with collecting the information that helps answer or provides feedback on your first level questions.

The data keeps you honest. It stops you from making assumptions and will challenge your perception. 

The Data I Need Isn't Available

Maybe it's not.

Usually it is, and if it's not, you can start to gather it.

The first thing to realize with ANY software that you are using is that EVERY field that is populated is in the back-end database.

I can't tell you how many times I have looked to build a report or asked someone for some type of information only to be told "you can't get a report like that".

That's trash.

The canned report may not have the field you want, but it's there. Protip: Always look to extract RAW data from systems - canned reports means someone has already decided what's important

And when it's not being recorded or it's not a field in your software? Gather it and build your own reports.

That probably sounds scary for some of you. It's not. Don't get me wrong, database management is a profession, it can get wildly complicated. For most of what people need, the basics are ultra simple.

Google Sheets, Excel, Airtable, Notion, [insert whatever tool that can structure data] can all help get you going.

A database is a filing cabinet. You record each transaction / item that you need to for what you are interested in. Each column in your table is a field (different piece of data). Some of it should be dimentional and other fields are transactional.

Dimensions are context. Who is the customer, their name, city. It can be static information about your product. These are the things that don't change.

Transactional data (facts) are things that do. What quantity was bought, how long an interaction lasted, how far you ran, the amount of weight you lifted, etc.

The only hard and fast rule is that you need a key. That's a unique ID that allows you to tag each customer or each product from your dimensions to your facts.

The Key to Success - Experimentation

You have to try.

To get feedback there has to be action. So, you need to test.

Don't worry about not getting everything right on the first try. There's too many times in my life where I started a project and started collecting information only to realize that something else was WAY more important than I realized.

Would I like to have those answers at the start? Of course. That's just not how it works.

The beauty in measuring your own why's and to building out your own insights is that you uncover the things that you didn't realize were influencing the outcome.

Don't kick yourself for not seeing it. No one has a crystal ball. Instead, celebrate the discovery. Use it to make things better.