On the train home, reflecting on what I’d learned over the past two days at my first Chief Data & Analytics Officers event, my mind wandered back to the final sentence from the last discussion group of the second day.
‘Teams need to communicate better.’
Not exactly an earth-shattering revelation, but I understood the sentiment and the context that larger data teams sitting across multiple different departments are often, unknowingly, duplicating effort. But in a world where more data than ever before is being produced, and laws on storage and use from a business perspective are becoming more stringent, is there now a necessity to be more open with users about what we know about them?
This ‘better communication’ shouldn’t only extend to internal discussions, the data that people give us should serve a purpose beyond targeting and personalisation. There is a growing responsibility to use data not only to improve business practices, but to provide that data back to users in an open and honest manner.
Going beyond targeting and personalisation — giving value to a user through their data
In a world where Spotify provides you with a highlight reel of your previous years’ listening habits, artists, songs, genres — it made me wonder why other apps don’t provide a similar retrospective highlights reel.
(Being honest, the why is easy…namely that spelling out in black and white how much money or time a user was spending on certain apps would often be a wake-up call to shift behaviour across many services and potentially impact bottom-line. I’m looking at you my JustEat bill).
The reason Spotify does it so successfully is that people are (mostly) proud of what they listen to, and the interactivity and inherent shareability drives interaction, engagement, reach, exposure. It is essentially free advertising.
This doesn’t mean other services shouldn’t provide the same level of insight privately to their members, who arguably have the right to the same level of insight and detail without the underlying expectation to share it with the world.
Being more honest about what your members are doing
Going back to JustEat as an example, personally, I’d be very intrigued about my takeaway habits across different days of the week, times of day, range of cuisines. Was I more likely to get pizza on a Friday night? Was I ordering Chinese on Tuesday evenings? What was my average spend on Fried Chicken vs Indian vs Turkish? I could then begin to better understand the logic behind my targeted experience.
Many people would be interested in exactly why those choices have been made and how personal experience has been curated based on analysis of past behaviour.
The risk for JustEat here, as opposed to the subscription model of Spotify, is that I might begin to evaluate both my spending and eating habits if these were presented back to me so definitively. Maybe I’d reduce my takeaway spending, or cut down, but maybe I’d spend more at healthier options, there is not an inherent, unavoidable negative.
But if JustEat can send me notifications and emails based on my previous behaviour, encouraging me to spend more, spend more often, and at a wider range of places, should they not also give me the information used to create these communications in an easily digestible (excuse the pun) way?
I’d like to think many people, myself included, would be willing to share their eating habits in the same way they’ll share their guilty-pleasure songs that have crept into their Top 5. And that it would not massively impact my ordering behaviour, but even if it did, I’d be making an informed choice. Is that not my right? If I agree to the T&Cs and contact preferences, should it not work both ways?
Similarly, and indeed for similar reasons, absent are betting companies, who provide no summary of deposits, withdrawals, cash-outs, and losses.
Could I find out my wins, losses, deposits, withdrawals if I really wanted to? Of course, but it’s a fiddly, time-consuming slog with a clunky interface and would ultimately only give me the very basic bottom lines. Instead, if I so chose, would I not be better served by having a nicely designed, interactive summary of where my losses (and wins) came from?
Which sports were kinder to me in terms of positive results? Which odds range was most likely to return? How much did I lose on Saturdays vs Tuesdays, on Horse Racing vs Football?
This information is all but impossible to extract as a user, but there is no doubt the betting companies are using it to shape and personalise their offers and notifications to me.
The counter-argument is that some (I’d argue a very small amount) of this data is available, and to a point it is…if you’re willing to trawl through clunky, unfunctional UI, navigate through nonsensical data-ranges, and have data obfuscated through all manner of oddly-named columns. Or I can go through the hassle of filling in a Subject Access Request and hope I eventually get a reply.
The world is growing more data literate, both as a result of endless Covid charts, and a growing focus on data through GDPR and similar laws on privacy. However, this does not mean that data is being used in the right way. There is an opportunity for change.
Data For Good: Using Data to Transform Habits
Now (if you can suspend disbelief at all the headaches surrounding privacy and data storage for a moment) imagine the usefulness of something similar for an NHS or prescriptions app, and the potential health benefits for better-informed patients.
‘You took 30% fewer antibiotics compared to last year.’
‘There was an average of 121 days between your GP appointments this year.’
‘You had 2 muscular injuries to your hip flexor in the past four months.’
With a more centralised, easy-to-digest app experience it would be so much simpler to understand health data and provide a tangible public service in much the same way many companies are making recommendations and personalising experience.
At the moment, there are only certain types of records accessible, and not across all regions or healthcare providers (such as mine, see below). By standardising access, and using the same analytical and statistical techniques widely used to sell you food, influence your buying decisions, and keep you endlessly scrolling, attitudes and understanding of health could be transformed for millions.
It could allow users to better understand the efficacy of their treatments, set personal health goals, among many other benefits. The reasons for ongoing difficulties and lack of such features largely seem privacy-related, understandably, but there is the potential here for people to take better control of their health.
I’ve almost made it through a whole article on data without using a single statistic, so I’ll correct that and leave you with this.
According to a Measure Protocol survey in February 2021 (n=1,269), when asked,
‘How worried are you about the collection and use of your data?’
85% of respondents were either ‘a little worried’ (39.5%), ‘quite worried’ (29.8%), or ‘very worried’ (15.8%).
As an industry, how do we alleviate this growing concern surrounding data collection?
Be honest. Be open. And give users something useful, beyond recommendation algorithms or personalised offers. Give them something to help them understand their interaction with your business. Give something that helps them understand themselves.
