Written by Heather L. Cole, April 20th 2023
Are you tired of spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on software and consulting for your analytics initiatives, only to be underwhelmed by the results? Do your end users still prefer using their old methods even after training them and going live? It's time to change the game and massively increase the perceived value of analytics for your organization.
Many experts have expressed that a lack of a data driven, or analytics culture is the challenge. (See Gartner blog, Create a Data Driven Culture by Influencing 3 Areas) But really, do we need to completely change the culture to achieve results? How long does that take? What if there was a simple key element that increased end user adoption and success with analytics? Learn the Secrets to Massively Increase the Perceived Value of Analytics
The Challenge
For the last month or so I have been bouncing a challenge in my head. I know that analytics success requires cross functional teams to be open to CHANGE. We need team members in all departments to be willing to try something new. But all too often hard-working analytic professionals build solutions for executives and end users in various departments. They work hard, sacrificing other initiatives and even quality time with their families to meet deadlines. They train the end users and officially go live. But then, they discover several end users aren’t using the solution in the way they intended. The end users are still dumping data to Excel and using it in their old ways. How maddening!
The Discovery
Why do end users insist on using the old methods? Why can’t they embrace change? Why don’t they get it? Have you ever had a problem or challenge that rattled around in your head for weeks? You walk the dog you think about it. You mow the lawn you think about it. And then one day WHAMM! You find the answer in the most unlikely place.
I was reading a book completely unrelated to analytics. It was a sales book, $100M Offers: How To Make Offers So Good People Feel Stupid Saying No by Alex Hormozi and there it was…. VALUE. In the book he discusses that people will not buy a solution if they don’t perceive the value to be great enough. Value, Value, Value. It bounced around in my head.
Could this be the same problem analytics professionals are facing? The end users don’t perceive the value of analytics to be great enough. But how is Value defined? Is there a formula for that?
That’s when I literally stood up! The author gave a formula for Value that is game-changing.
Dream Outcome Promised X Perceived Likelihood of Achieving the Outcome
Time to Achieve the Outcome X The Degree of Effort & Sacrifice Required
The formula bounced in my head. I dissected the components. On the top we have the vision or dream analytics is promising multiplied by the perceived likelihood of achieving the vision. If your end users don’t believe your organization can achieve the vision, they will not embrace your solutions. But how do we help them believe?
Believing in Analytics
Did you know there’s a simple way to get people to believe in your initiative? Get them involved! A great way to do this is to host an Analytics Requirements Discovery session. When people are given an opportunity to share their ideas and participate in the process it will significantly increase their likelihood of believing and supporting the solutions. But most analytic professionals I have met have never been trained in facilitating analytics discovery sessions.
The Solution
At Lodestar Solutions we created our 4-hour virtual Facilitating Planning and Analytics Requirements Discovery Workshop. We just added two more Workshop dates to our calendar. May 18th and June 7th from 1-5 PM Eastern. Here’s the link to register.
In our unique workshop we discuss the primary needs of our end users and how we can better meet their needs. We deep dive into the effort required by our end users and the sacrifices they are being asked to make so we can minimize the denominator of the formula. If we can reduce the time, effort and sacrifice the end users perceived value will increase and so will the end user adoption…
Don't miss this opportunity to learn the secrets to massively increasing the end user's perceived value of analytics. Register today for our workshop:
Facilitating Planning and Analytics
Requirements Discovery Workshop
May 18th or June 7th from 1-5 PM Eastern