When Data is Your Product: Empowering Business Users

1. PAGE 1 | GRACE HOPPER CELEBRATION 2016 | #GHC16 PRESENTED BY THE ANITA BORG INSTITUTE AND THE ASSOCIATION FOR COMPUTING MACHINERY #GHC16 2016 When Data is Your Product: Empowering Business Users Denise McInerney @denisemc06 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

2. PAGE 2 | GRACE HOPPER CELEBRATION 2016 | #GHC16 PRESENTED BY THE ANITA BORG INSTITUTE AND THE ASSOCIATION FOR COMPUTING MACHINERY About Me Working with data since 1996 • DBA-Analyst-Engineer-Architect Active in Tech Community • VP of Marketing for PASS • WIT @denisemc06 www.linkedin.com/in/denisemcinerney Tech Women @ Intuit

3. PAGE 3 | GRACE HOPPER CELEBRATION 2016 | #GHC16 PRESENTED BY THE ANITA BORG INSTITUTE AND THE ASSOCIATION FOR COMPUTING MACHINERY Goals for Today • What does it mean to empower business users with data? • How can it be done?

4. PAGE 4 | GRACE HOPPER CELEBRATION 2016 | #GHC16 PRESENTED BY THE ANITA BORG INSTITUTE AND THE ASSOCIATION FOR COMPUTING MACHINERY What’s a Data Product? Use data to make a product smarter Analytics solutions to enable data heroes • Business smart + data savvy • Provide data & tools to maximize effectiveness • Access to data enables them to make better decisions How well did my marketing campaign perform? “SELECT SUM(clicks), SUM(revenue) FROM campaign_table WHERE campaign name = “MyCampaign”

5. PAGE 5 | GRACE HOPPER CELEBRATION 2016 | #GHC16 PRESENTED BY THE ANITA BORG INSTITUTE AND THE ASSOCIATION FOR COMPUTING MACHINERY When You Get It Right Business users desperate for data • Knew the questions, needed the answers — What is the customer retention rate? — What is the elapsed time between orders? — How many new & reorders resulted from each marketing campaign? Created analytics solution • Access to the data, easily consumable (Excel) • Became a feature of every business review • Transformed how they did their jobs

6. PAGE 6 | GRACE HOPPER CELEBRATION 2016 | #GHC16 PRESENTED BY THE ANITA BORG INSTITUTE AND THE ASSOCIATION FOR COMPUTING MACHINERY How Can This Be Done?

7. PAGE 7 | GRACE HOPPER CELEBRATION 2016 | #GHC16 PRESENTED BY THE ANITA BORG INSTITUTE AND THE ASSOCIATION FOR COMPUTING MACHINERY Focus on the Outcome Business-back • Start from the users’ point-of-view • Walk a mile in their shoes • Don’t assume you know The dog wags the tail • Solving problems FOR the organization WITH technology • Business users are the experts in the business • Engineers & IT are the experts in the tech

8. PAGE 8 | GRACE HOPPER CELEBRATION 2016 | #GHC16 PRESENTED BY THE ANITA BORG INSTITUTE AND THE ASSOCIATION FOR COMPUTING MACHINERY Take the Trip Together Start wherever the organization is Talk tech to non-technical people • Seek to understand • Describe your vision • Don’t try to dazzle with tech Customers are part of: • Requirements • Implementation • Testing

9. PAGE 9 | GRACE HOPPER CELEBRATION 2016 | #GHC16 PRESENTED BY THE ANITA BORG INSTITUTE AND THE ASSOCIATION FOR COMPUTING MACHINERY Consider the Tech Options Understand the goals, then pick the tech • Or use what you have Many possible paths to success Make the most of your expertise to solve the problem • Data models, structure • Don’t get too attached to an idea Don’t over-engineer or under-engineer

10. PAGE 10 | GRACE HOPPER CELEBRATION 2016 | #GHC16 PRESENTED BY THE ANITA BORG INSTITUTE AND THE ASSOCIATION FOR COMPUTING MACHINERY Don’t Be a Snob About Tools Software is just a tool • What matters most is getting the job done Analysts are spreadsheet wizards Variety of good answers, pay attention & help find the best • Don’t let it interfere with reaching the goal

11. PAGE 11 | GRACE HOPPER CELEBRATION 2016 | #GHC16 PRESENTED BY THE ANITA BORG INSTITUTE AND THE ASSOCIATION FOR COMPUTING MACHINERY It Has to Be Correct & Available Apply engineering rigor/SDLC process • Testing, validation, quality, anomalies • Data can be tricky Apply operational rigor, have SLAs • Availability • Stability • Performance • Scalability

12. PAGE 12 | GRACE HOPPER CELEBRATION 2016 | #GHC16 PRESENTED BY THE ANITA BORG INSTITUTE AND THE ASSOCIATION FOR COMPUTING MACHINERY In Conclusion Combine business acumen with technology • Remember which comes first Communication & involvement of customer Access to the right data • Accurate • Reliable

13. PAGE 13 | GRACE HOPPER CELEBRATION 2016 | #GHC16 PRESENTED BY THE ANITA BORG INSTITUTE AND THE ASSOCIATION FOR COMPUTING MACHINERY Thank you Feedback? Download at http://bit.ly/ghc16app or search GHC 16 in the app store Rate and review the session on our mobile app

Notas del editor

DBA, Data Analyst & Data Engineer Active in technical community Advocate for women in tech
Show of hands: Business side, IT/Engineering side Coming from technical perspective, what you should do From a business perspective, what you should ask for
A few years ago… Previously only had access to source systems, long running queries Analyst description: wait so long for the query to return, she’ forget what question she was trying to answer First demo, they applauded Flesh out what questions they asked— Customer reorder retention Consumable product—how long before they ran out Marketing campaign result Created a analytics application
Start with the problem or question, focus on outcome My year as an analyst opened my eyes to this—facing execs with questions, dealing with inadequate systems If you can’t do their job, you can sit with them, walk in their shoes Access to your customers is a luxury—take advantage People don’t think of these data solutions as a product with customers—but it is.
Understand what level of comfort do they have My earlier example, they were starving for the data Not always the case Recently: looked at the metric as written, thought it was misguided Talked to the user, found out why they were approaching it that way, found a better answer together Describe your vision, in a way that resonates Explain why you are making recommendations or choices Understand what questions they are trying to answer Understand the tolerance for latency, accuracy Formed User Councils, Office Hours, Analysts in the scrums
Don’t get attached: I’ve had to let go of ideas I thought were cool because they wouldn’t be useful to the users Your solution is going to change because the priorities of the org are going to change And the data is going to change If you are going to be successful in the mission of empowering your users, you have to be prepared to roll with the changes If you can If you can’t, use what’s available to you and be smart about how you use it Example of getting attached: thought I had a great idea—looked at source data, came up with design thought I really had something interesting analyst customer said: interesting, but I”ll never use it fortunately I had only gone as far as a paper design, so nothing much lost Over under engineering: Remember it’s the means to the end But those means still have to be solid
Software is a tool What matters most is getting the job done What’s the most used BI tool? Analysts are spreadsheet wizards First example, started with Excel—that was their window into the data and they embraced it Variety of good answers, pay attention & help find the best The expo hall here great place to see what is out there, This is where you can add value
The answer has to be within tolerance Deserves as much as any other software Example of subs—number there, but is it right? Answer looks right but is actually wrong Data can be tricky Just because you don’t get an error doesn’t mean your answer is right Recent example: counting a weekly number, there was a number, but customer thought it wasn’t right, his gut was right More & more these are mission critical systems If you are a data-driven business, you have to have the data Have to treat this like any production system Because it’s “internal” it does not get the same attention That means monitoring, alerting, reacting

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When Data is Your Product: Empowering Business Users

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