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Marketing Dashboards

In my role at FSI.co I deal with an overwhelming amount of data. To make it simpler, I’m going to focus on one segment of the data that I’ve been trying to get a grasp on so that I can help further our mission – to be known as the provider for polyurethane chemical systems.

I’m challenging our Digital Marketing Director to develop dashboards so the executive team can quickly see and digest how effective the marketing campaigns we run are. As I’ve been researching business intelligence further, I am beginning to understand that finding data points is often too easy, and throwing up random data on a dashboard lives in the primary stage of DATA.

Let’s back up here and explain the four stages of DIKW otherwise known as the Wisdom Hierarchy. This is a way of categorizing data into four distinct levels: Data, Information, Knowledge and Wisdom.

  • Data is raw data that has not been organized or interpreted. For example, temperature readings in various regions.
  • Information is data that has been categorized and organized according to certain criteria.
  • Knowledge is “justified true belief”, as defined by Plato. It includes additional relational information such as correlations, causation, logic and conditions for the models to hold. This knowledge can then be put into actionable models which are a form of knowledge in themselves.
  • Wisdom comes from being able to identify and apply this relevant knowledge in meaningful ways.

So how would all of this help us in this example of a dashboard I’m preparing to setup in the Marketing department?

I listened to a podcast recently where Forrester’s VP & Principal Analyst Ross Graber stated: “Our latest buying study showed us that on average buyers are going through 27 different motions before they make a successful purchasing decision.”

That statistic aligns with what I’ve been hearing for the last year or two. That 27 motions are not time boxed either. As an example, one of our chemical systems is such a large scale decision that it takes roughly 5 years to move the purchasing organization along the buyer’s journey from Awareness to Decision.

My goal with setting up the dashboard is to be able to identify these 27 interactions and see where we can help answer questions or minimize risks, fears, anxieties the business may have. How can we turn a 5 year decision into a 2 year decision?

That is where wisdom is in the DIKW hierarchy.

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Schneiderman’s Eight Golden Rules

Ben Schneiderman worked in Human-Computer Interaction and his research revealed these eight golden rules for interface design.

  1. Strive for consistency. Use familiar icons, colors, menu styles, calls to action, etc.
  2. Enable users to use shortcuts. Users who use your product often will inevitably understand it and no longer need directions on how to use it. They will start looking for ways to move through the interface quicker, provide them shortcuts.
  3. Offer informative feedback. Breadcrumbs and ripple effects on websites, ATM noises, haptic responses on phones/watches are examples of informative feedback.
  4. Design dialogue to yield closure. Thank you messages after purchase, Congratulations after sign-ups, these messages close the interaction for the user.
  5. Offer simple error handling. This reminds me of back in the day when forms were really hard to develop and if you filled one out incorrectly, you would lose all of your information when the page kicked you back. Simple error handling flags fields that may have been missed or filled out improperly.
  6. Permit easy reversal of actions. If the user feels comfortable that errors are reversible, they will explore more.
  7. Support internal locus of control. If your users explore more, they will feel more in control and ultimately trust your application or company more.
  8. Reduce short-term memory load. Human attention is limited. We are only able to remember five things at a time (give or take 2). Recognition is always easier than recalling something.

Deep Dive Resources:

https://developer.apple.com/design/human-interface-guidelines/

This post is part of a series of quick informative lists I can refer back to when doing research or preparing presentations.

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Information Facts of Life

According to an article from HBR (March-April 1994), there are rules governing information sharing behavior. Having run across these rules doing some Change Management research this morning, I find these rules relevant even 26 years later.

  • Most of the information in organizations – and most of the information people really care about – is not on computers.
  • Managers prefer to get information from people rather than computers; people add value to raw information by interpreting it and adding context.
  • The more complex and detailed an information management approach, the less likely it is to change anyone’s behavior.
  • All information does not have to be common; an element of flexibility and disorder is desirable.
  • The more a company knows and cares about its core business area, the less likely employees will be to agree on a common definition of it.
  • If information is power and money, people will not share it easily.
  • The willingness of individuals to use a specified information format is directly proportional to how much they have participated in defining it, or trust other who did.
  • To make the most of electronic communications, employees must first learn to communicate face to face.
  • Since people are important sources and integrators of information, any maps of information should include people.
  • There is no such thing as information overload; if information is really useful our appetite for it is insatiable.

Original Article can be found here.

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