Lies My Data Told Me

Why guess what customers want when they'll tell us what they'd pay for? What's the point in speculating on what products or features to build when it's so easy to collect user feedback and behavioral data? This idea of the "data-driven" business is irresistible, but it is also a path fraught with peril.
All too often this thinking leads companies in exactly the wrong direction to realize their vision OR build a sustainable business.
This talk will expose the traps that lay in wait, and discuss the ways that purpose-driven companies use data to inform (but not make) their decisions.
Highlights include:
- The threat of false confidence
- How to collect the right data (you get what you measure)
- Learn to make sense of contradictory signals
- The importance of ignoring user feedback (sometimes)
- How to avoid optimizing for local maxima
- The trouble with A/B testing