Data democracy means different things to different organizations—but broadly speaking, it’s making the same relevant, actionable data available to people at every level within a company.
Done correctly, it can empower folks to make better decisions (regardless of their position), foster teamwork in a scalable way, and help your organization align and adapt to changing market conditions.
It sounds good in theory, right? But sprawling teams and hyper-specialized department structures can make implementation difficult.
In this article, we’ll explore:
Why implementing data democracy practices is worth the effort
How it can benefit a wide array of departments at your organization
How FullStory can help
Read more about the importance of data democracy in the app space from the Yodel Mobile team.
Product managers
Product managers (PMs) are often an organization’s “idea people.” They use data to discover new concepts for products and decide what to focus on first.
Through data democracy, PMs can take advantage of information like:
User feedback to find out what problems users have, how they behave, and where there's room for improvement
Quantitative metrics and performance indicators to see which features or ideas will have the biggest impact and value
Conversion rates and customer satisfaction to see if their product strategy is working—and whether the approach needs to be tweaked to stay competitive
Data democracy in action for PMs
Transporting over 40 million passengers every year, JetBlue is a household name. In addition to a 20% reduction in payment errors, FullStory helped the company achieve data democracy among its product and engineering teams. When alerted to an error, the engineering team can now immediately utilize Session Replay and the Console View in Dev Tools to learn the details of the JavaScript error. The product team can look at the team session to see which customer action caused the error. Without a lot of back and forth, teams can look at the same data and use it to improve the digital experience.
Click here to read more about JetBlue’s success with FullStory.
UX designers
It’s no secret that data and UX go hand in hand. User experience designers:
Help ensure that products are intuitive and easy to use
Locate possible user pain points
Provide a window into the minds of the target audience
By analyzing user behavior data, designers can identify patterns, trends, and preferences, and take the guesswork out of the decision making process.
Combining the art of design with the science of data is well worth the investment.
Data democracy in action for UX designers
For instance, the Australian travel management company Flight Centre used FullStory to achieve a 22% decrease in booking fail rate and a 24% increase in usage of a key feature. But perhaps most importantly, the platform aligned their UX and dev teams to resolve issues faster.
Previously, the teams would spend up to two weeks finding the root cause of a single bug or a user friction point. Now, the investigation and prioritization process is shortened to a matter of days—teams across the organization can quickly grasp the scale of the problem and watch replays to understand its full context.
And eventually, five of Flight Centre’s teams got on board and started using FullStory.
Learn more about Flight Centre’s successes with FullStory.
Engineers and developers
The right data can go a long way in helping engineers and developers understand the performance, efficiency, and user experience around software applications. Data democracy can help identify bottlenecks, optimize resource allocation, and improve overall application efficiency in addition to helping developers locate areas for improvement.
Data democracy in action for engineers
For instance, Yakima Chief Hops—a major supplier of hops for breweries across the globe—had an engineering team without full-time quality assurance or UI/UX team members, and couldn’t come together to locate the source of user issues.
In addition to a savings of 50% support time per incident and 10% of engineering time per sprint, FullStory helped Yakima’s engineering team identify bugs before they even happen.
Read more about Yakima Chief Hops and FullStory.
Marketers
Product marketing is where the “rubber meets the road” and the hard work of all the other teams connects with the target audience. Marketers can use the right data points in myriad ways, including:
Use demographic data, browsing behavior, and other data points to craft messages that speak directly to the individual interests
Track key performance indicators such as click-through rates, conversion rates, and customer acquisition costs
Identify new campaign elements that will resonate with target audiences.
Check out five Digital Experience Intelligence (DXI) use cases for SaaS marketers.
Data democracy in action for marketers
Jacaranda Finance knows the struggle to disseminate data across an organization. The Australian finance company provides fast, transparent loan services and utilized FullStory to achieve a 20% increase in application form conversions.
FullStory also helped Jacaranda’s teams come together around DXI. Using the platform as their source of truth helped the company break down data silos and unite around a comprehensive understanding of their digital user experience.
Read more about Jacaranda Finance.
For more on the revenue-boosting benefits of democratized data, download the complete guide.
