EXAM 1 - MBA 741 (SALEH)

EXAM 1 - MBA 741 (SALEH) Second Pillar of understanding: Portfolio Analysis - CORRECT ANSWER-What drives my business? - seeking to understand the dynamics of your business After confirming the correct drivers from the measurement framework, you can begin to understand the dynamics of your portfolio by observing how these drivers perform when segmented by products or offerings. Review a profit loss statement (P&L), create a 2x2 or 2x2x2 matrix across metrics, rank/visualize them in a bubble chart. Once you have an informed understanding of your portfolio, you can leverage data to glean insights against your risks and opportunities and boost the projects that will help strengthen your company Business Question - Decision Science Track: Stakeholders - CORRECT ANSWER-Who is asking? Who is the decision maker? Who will take action?. Business Question - Decision Science Track: Timeline - CORRECT ANSWER-What decisions need to be taken and by When? How does cost cutting as a strategy to improve company performance - CORRECT ANSWER-It may not! Unless it is coupled with data analysis and testing, cost cutting alone can lead to bad decisions. Analytics is not just about data, but about decisions. Actions without insight means decisions are made without any perspective on which paths would yield results Analytics - CORRECT ANSWER-The science of applying a structured method to solve a business problem using data and analysis to drive impact. The right analytics approach is an informed solution backed by data and actionable insights hypothesis-driven analytics strategy - CORRECT ANSWER-Problem ----- Intuition (creativity)-----Solution 1.Problem: 2. Hypotheses: intuition takes a problem, chews it up, and generates ideas and hypotheses 3. Analysis and Insights 4. Test/learn: those hypotheses are tested and data kills most of them 5. Execute and measure: the best one remaining moves forward as your solution BADIR - CORRECT ANSWER-Business Question Analysis Plan Data Collection Insights Recommendations Why do hypotheses do? - CORRECT ANSWER-They narrow down where to find the most likely answers, they are generated by intuition based on collective intelligence and experience of stakeholders and understanding of the business environment How are hypotheses validated? - CORRECT ANSWER-With data to come up with convergent solutions through data analytics Benefits of a hypotheses-driven analytics strategy - CORRECT ANSWER-1. greater actionable insight 2. Faster time to information and action Intent Question - CORRECT ANSWER-What are you trying to do? What is happening that is not supposed to happen? Intent of your initiative - CORRECT ANSWER-Step 1 in a hypothesis-drive analysis strategy: Sets the context and aligns your thought in the direction of the desired goal Hypothesis questions - CORRECT ANSWER-Step 2 in a hypothesis-drive analysis strategy: What could drive it? Why is this happening? Answer this question and you know your potential catalysts and key drivers. The answer to this question is NOT DEFINITIVE, but it is a good start Analysis questions - CORRECT ANSWER-Step 3 in a hypothesis-drive analysis strategy: We could do A or B or C or D to solve this Based on analysis, doing A and B will likely increase margin Steps in a hypothesis-drive analysis strategy (the what's and the how's) - CORRECT ANSWER-1. Intent: determine the intent of your initiative 2. Hypothesis: determine the potential catalysts and key driver 3. Analysis: prove or disprove hypothesis with data and find actionable insights 4. Testing; testing the insights for early learning and before final execution. Testing questions - CORRECT ANSWER-Step 4 in a hypothesis-drive analysis strategy: Analysis says B can increase our margins by X percent and A by Y percent." "Testing with consumers tells us, they simply love B." What distinguishes the success of organizations? - CORRECT ANSWER-Their response to a challenge (e.g. market instability). The decisions they make since all companies are exposed to the same challenges in their industry. Who can benefit form analytics - CORRECT ANSWER-Everyone! Analytics pays back $10.66 for every dollar spent. Analytics is not just about _____________, but about _________________ - CORRECT ANSWER-data, decisions The difference between explorer and detective modes of problem solving? - CORRECT ANSWER-Explorer method - no analysis, method not dependent on the problem (e.g. would do the same thing in another situation), less effective (but prettier) Detective method - analytical, tailor to the problem, more effective What type of analytics techniques are usually most effective in business? - CORRECT ANSWER-Simple ones! and PEOPLE SKILLS bridging the gap between business and math make or break the deal due to business constraints such as ROI, explainablity, maintainability, turnaround time, and scalability, simple analysis techniques are better in a business situation. Data Science - CORRECT ANSWER-Technical track: designed to derive insights form data Decision science - CORRECT ANSWER-business track: designed to align stakeholders so that the valuable insights produced using the data science track can be inserted into the decision-making process and converted into action Analytics is only useful when_______________ - CORRECT ANSWER-it drives impact. If it does not drive business impact, it is just statistics. 2 components of Analysis for impact - CORRECT ANSWER-1. Data science (toward insight) + 2. decision science (toward impact) What must an analyst do to be successful? - CORRECT ANSWER-Needs to choose the right technique for analysis and deliver insights, but then use influence and soft skills to build alignment with the stakeholders of business counterparts. 80:20 Rule of analytics - CORRECT ANSWER-80% business analytics - bigger ROI with limited effort for most problems 20% advanced analytics Business analytics - CORRECT ANSWER-the use of simpler analytics methodologies on past data advanced analytics - CORRECT ANSWER-everything not business analytics, including predictive analytics Pros of Business analytics - CORRECT ANSWER-1. Quick and easy 2. Can be learned by most business professionals and done using common tools like excel Con of business analytics - CORRECT ANSWER-1. not exhaustive, so may miss the top parameter that can drive the biggest business outcome Pro of predictive (advanced) analytics - CORRECT ANSWER-1. can evaluate hundreds of metrics and can thus identify the most important parameters to drive biggest business outcomes Con of predictive (advanced) analytics - CORRECT ANSWER-1. time and resource intensive 2. needs specialized modeling skills and advance statistical tools Business intelligence - CORRECT ANSWER-inclusive of all operations from when data is collected to when data is accessed. Difference between business intelligence and analytics - CORRECT ANSWER-2 distinct processes that involve different tools and serve different purposes BI = collection and access of data Analysis = performed on data delivered by BI, converting into actionable insights Difference between controlled experimentation and analytics - CORRECT ANSWERAnalytics looks at a business event and analyzes the historical data to come up with insights. Testing, on the other hand, is a controlled experiment conducted when you do not have historical data on which to base a decision. It is the creation of new sample data through controlled experiments to derive insights and prove a causal relationship Analytics can prove ___________________, testing can prove __________________ - CORRECT ANSWER-a relationship (A--B), causation (A---B) Growth hacking - CORRECT ANSWER-a process within an organization that has the singular focus of driving scalable growth of a growth metric. Simple mantras have been to make the product market itself rather than be constrained by a marketing budget 3 Vs of Big Data - CORRECT ANSWER-volume, velocity, variety These create issues of storage and visualization Structured data - CORRECT ANSWER-data in the form of rows and columns traditional business intelligence systems are set up well to understand this type of data unstructured data - CORRECT ANSWER-Not defined and does not follow a specified format, pictures, text, movies traditional business intelligence systems are not set up to understand this type of data BI in teh face of big data is unstable because....... - CORRECT ANSWER-A large volume of data has existed for a long time, but it is the addition of the other two Vs (velocity and variety) that causes instability Big data is a ________________________, not an __________________ - CORRECT ANSWER-business intelligence issues, analytics issue Difference between big data and analytics - CORRECT ANSWER-Big data is hard to store and render (due to the 3 Vs) and requires special tools and technology; but once the monster of data structuring is done as a part of BI, analytics can be done on that data just the same. Analytics starts with identifying a subset of Big Data to intelligently narrow down the scope using hypotheses. Big data is _______________________ with analytics - CORRECT ANSWER-NOT SYNONYMOUS When done right, analytics ------------------- - CORRECT ANSWER-always deals with subsets of data Seven most common analytics methodologies - CORRECT ANSWER-1. aggregate analysis 2. correlation analysis 3. trend analysis 4. sizing/estimation 5. predictive analytics 6. segmentation 7. customer life-cycle analysis Aggregate Analysis - description - CORRECT ANSWER-Used to describe a population or a segment or to compare two segments Aggregate analysis - application - CORRECT ANSWER-Descriptive analysis, profiling, campaign analysis, winner-loser analysis. Correlation analysis - description - CORRECT ANSWER-Looks for the relationship between two or more things with the prospect of being able to explain or drive one with other Correlation analysis - application - CORRECT ANSWER-Pre and post, test-control, drivers, dashboard. Trends analysis - description - CORRECT ANSWER-Aggregate or correlation analysis over time, that is, trends over a period of time. Trends analysis - application - CORRECT ANSWER-Trends of sales, revenues, breaks in trend and segments or drivers over a period of time. Sizing/estimation - description - CORRECT ANSWER-Structured approach to make a near-accurate guesstimate in the absence of historical data Sizing/estimation - application - CORRECT ANSWER-Business case with limited internal data or one that is dependent on external data and assumptions. Predictive Analytics/Time Series - description - CORRECT ANSWER-Looks at both current and historical data to make predictions about future events. Predictive Analytics/Time Series - application - CORRECT ANSWER-Drivers of conversion or consumer engagement, forecasting. Segmentation - description - CORRECT ANSWER-Groups customers or products into meaningful segments, usually to enable better targeting for the purpose of driving higher value through customization. Segmentation - application - CORRECT ANSWER-Grouping customers or products for targeting and customization. Customer Life Cycle - description - CORRECT ANSWER-Looks at the different stages of the purchase process to determine what stage a group of customers is at and decide how to move them up to the next stage in the purchase process. Customer Life Cycle - application - CORRECT ANSWER-Customer progress stages from consideration through purchase to use, sales funnel. Aggregate analysis - CORRECT ANSWER-Simplest and most commonly used analytics methodology, also the first step in many other methodologies used to describe a population or a segment or to compare two segments Aggregate analysis questions - CORRECT ANSWER-Descriptive or comparative questions: - Who are my customers? - How are my customers different in one geographical region versus another? - Do younger people access our digital product through tablets more than older people? - What worked and what didn't work in the last marketing campaign? Correlation - CORRECT ANSWER-Looks for the relationship between two or more things with the prospect of being able to explain or drive one with the other Correlation questions - CORRECT ANSWER-business questions: - Why is last quarter's revenue below expectation (by finding the segments that correlate with revenue gap)? - Why is the foot traffic down for the Verizon store in Manhattan (by finding correlators of foot traffic) Trends analysis - CORRECT ANSWER-aggregate or correlation analysis over time, that is, analysis of trends over a period of time most often is used to ex-amine sales performance or revenue growth over time; identifies breaks in the trend and pinpoint the impacted segments and drivers over that period of time. Trends analysis questions - CORRECT ANSWER-- Has our customer base been shifting to a younger demographic (by trending age over time)?