| | JUNE 20208CIOReviewIN MY OPINION Software product managers wear many hats. They spend their day understanding their market, speaking with customers and balancing input from executives and cross-departmental stakeholders, all while delivering solutions to keep them competitive. On top of this, they are accountable for the success of the products they bring to market. But how can you quantify the success of a product outside of how much it's selling? For instance, are customers happy with the functionality and output? Can the product be improved without having to tap clients for feedback? Is the solution uncovering trends that can make a bigger impact on an industry?The answer is yes; analytics uncover a swatch of useful information that quantifies results and helps organizations make better informed decisions. SaaS companies sit on enormous amounts of data, but oftentimes might not know how to translate it into something actionable. Here are five ways product managers should be using analytics:1. Use analytics to prove if an idea is viable Before putting something into play, product managers are challenged across the business on whether aconcept is needed or will work. In this era of digital information, an abundance of data is available at the hand of organizations that can readily be synthesized into insight, enabling one to test specific ideas and whether or not they provide any actionable path forward. This is an essential first step in envisioning many aspects of enterprise growth, which spans from product development, marketing, features, pricing to sale, revenue and growth.Avenues like Kaggle, a platform for predictive modeling and analytics competitions,exist to help organizations translate data. It's based on the process of building a model, testing the feasibility of an idea, the scope and transforming into a pattern or insight. Product managers should take advantage of these types of platforms when vetting an idea.2. Use data to uncover customer behaviorKnowing what customers want to solve with a product is more important than what customers are saying about the product. The true power of analytics lies in its ability to correctly capture customer behavior and turn it into a business opportunity.Take Amazon, for example. Thirty five percent of Amazon's sales are generated from correctly predicting customer'spurchasing behavior with its "customers who bought this item also bought these items" suggestion. With Netflix, 75% of viewer activity is driven by its recommendations, which reduces churn and improves their recommendation algorithms.HOW PRODUCT MANAGERS SHOULD USE ANALYTICS TO IMPROVE THEIR BUSINESSBy Peter Modica, senior director of products, iCIMS
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