Figuring out where to start on your analytics / AI journey can be a challenging step. Maybe you’ve identified some business problems where you think some sort of analytics solution can help, but how do you prioritize the business problems, identify the analytics / AI technique to use (metrics, dashboards, machine learning, etc), and find and process the data you need to address the problems? This post will describe three approaches to getting started: strategy, find the pain, and copycat.
The strategy approach aligns your analytics / AI investments with one or more key parts of your business strategy. Whether that is growing your customer base, improving the reliability of your products or services, or reducing costs, there are analytics investments that can help.
Find the pain requires you to look at the hardest problems in your business. If planning for demand is a challenge, advanced forecasting could help make better decisions. Or if you have processes that take an inordinate amount of time, automation could reduce the human effort.
Copycat involves leveraging ideas from others in similar situations – same industry, same technology toolset, same region, etc. Vendor solutions and case studies could help here, but you have be careful to separate the true value from the marketing. Academic papers are another source for inspiration that could help your business.
An ideal starting point is in one of the overlapping blue or green areas of the Venn diagram above. Perhaps there’s a vendor solution that addresses a pain point. A friction pain point that slows down progress towards your strategic goal is another common area of overlap.
Getting help figuring out where to start can be very beneficial. Reach out to me if you’re interested in discussing your AI strategy and/or tailored training to help maximize the return on your investment.