Beyond Metrics: Moving from Opinion to Analysis

Go beyond mere dashboards and start building insights. Brian Ong moves us through Google’s Data Analytics Chain, summarized below, from opinion and metrics all the way to analysis and action. This clip is excerpted from a full-length HCI keynote video; see full version here.

• Start gathering data, in order to get past fuzzy and ineffectual gut-feel approaches, bearing in mind that data can be hard to digest.   
• Use metrics, which are easier to explain, although dashboards often collect dust eventually.
• Analyze, identifying correlation (as opposed to causation); this brings you to insight, which leads to action influencing the executive layer—the ultimate desired outcome.
• The final step is always communication, a critical element without which the preceding steps are ineffectual.