A Time You Needed a Combination of Skills to Solve a Problem
Tell us about a time you needed a combination of skills to solve a problem.
(Company X), where I work as Data Lead, helps company researchers to manage their own customer data analyses; for example, if Instagram wanted to analyze social media habits of MBA students living in Evanston, they would use (Company X) to connect with people meeting their criteria, and then hire a second, specialty company like to conduct and analyze focus groups. Last year, in an effort to improve (Company X)’s platform, my product team, including a product designer, engineers, and a product manager, built integrations between specialty tools and our platform to streamline the experience for our corporate customers.
Two months after releasing the integration, I analyzed the data to see how the features were performing. What I found was disappointing: researchers were not using the tools much. Some were bypassing our new features altogether, while others were incorrectly entering the information needed to sync their accounts and simply getting stuck. (Company X) had invested vast resources into these integrations with the goal of expanding the scope of our analytics, so it was important to make sure the tools were usable.
I needed a combination of skills to revive our product so it could serve our clients better. First, I collaborated with my product manager to diagnose the cause of the problem, combining quantitative analysis with listening skills: data revealed what percentage of researchers were attempting to use the integration tool, but we needed to talk to users directly to understand why some tried integrations and others did not, why some succeeded in connecting while others failed, and what they did after receiving a frustrating “error” message. I aggregated our meeting notes and data, and analyzed our open-ended analysis responses.
From our customers, we learned that we had not done enough to communicate that these integrations existed and would make their work easier, or even how to set integrations up. We also learned that researchers who figured out the integrations enjoyed the smoother experience. Combining the skills of empathy, product intuition, and creativity, I helped my team brainstorm solutions to encourage more of our customers to take the leap: I participated in sticky-noting activities and ideating sessions, where my data-grounded suggestions helped determine how to best communicate information to non-specialist corporate researchers. We decided to add more guideposts within our product to highlight the benefits of the integrations, and to help researchers understand how to sync their accounts.
Following these updates, I revisited my initial analyses and was relieved to see that 80% of our corporate clients were now using our integration features, and more analyses overall were launched via our integration tools. After the success of these integrations, my team has expanded these upgrades to all of (Company X)’s products.