Developing a Mobile Analytics Strategy

Would you invest in a stock if there were no way to track its valuation?  Owning the stock would be a blind venture:  no way to know if you should buy, sell—or if you’ve already lost your shirt.

Similarly, to make confident investments in a mobile products portfolio you need to establish clear measurement of progress against business objectives, proactively track performance, and create actionable insights to guide future product development.  

Mobile analytics enable you to execute on all these critical tasks.  And, according to MIT research, top performing companies tend to leverage analytics 5 times more than competitors.

Here are a few examples of how mobile analytics data enabled companies to directly improve business results:

• Comcast used analytics to improve its recruiting mobile app’s user experience and saw a dramatic impact on its overall recruiting results, with mobile applicants increasing by over 20% overall and mobile candidates completing their applications at a rate of over 50%
• Overstock.com used insights gained from Flurry’s mobile analytics to increase in-app purchases per user by 25%
• Airbnb improved conversion rates 5x using Mixpanel’s mobile analytics

Creating a mobile analytics strategy would seem to be a obvious part of every mobile product development effort.  However, it is often an after-thought at best.  Why?  

The simplest answer is that delivery teams focus on what’s needed to get an app to market, not how to manage business results.  But—much like managing a stock portfolio—it’s imperative to plan from the start how to measure, track and improve a mobile product over time.

Now, mobile analytics can be a complex topic.  There are a variety of vendor solutions, many of which are web-oriented solutions that have recently bolted on mobile capabilities rather than being truly fine-tuned for mobile.  (On the other hand, the traditional web analytics solutions more readily offer cross-channel insights, especially if your choice of mobile analytics tool is not integrated.)  In any case, among the mobile-focused vendors, while there is a lot of functional overlap, products are often targeted for specific business models or types of analysis.  

So, how to start?  Here we’ll explore three steps to creating and implementing a mobile analytics strategy.

Plan

Initially, there are three main categories of information you should focus on supporting:

• Business Measures of Success/KPIs.  Each product has a unique set of business outcome or success measures—these KPIs can include business results, technology performance, user behavior, and so on.  Whatever the business objective, make sure that the data required to calculate each KPI is accurately captured.  Also, know that KPIs may change over time as you gain insight and product matures.  Your objective is to ensure that all stakeholders can track the KPIs by which products’ contribution to the business is measured.
• Technology and Operational Monitoring.  Track technical aspects of product performance; for example, response time for a key operation, which devices are being used, app crash details, network connectivity, etc.  Your objective is to proactively surface defects and performance issues—before they are posted in a negative review or result in app deletion—that prevent users from enjoying an optimal experience.
• Engagement, Tracking User Behavior.  Prepare to listen for users’ signals about how and when they use the app, favored features, interactions and paths through the app.  Your objective is to connect the data points to surface insights on how to improve the aspects of user experience that are important to overall success.

In short, the data you track should support creation of information that either alerts you to issues to address or opportunities to explore.  This information will be historical (older than 24 hours), operational (today) or real-time.  

Plan to start simply:  Start small, test data accuracy and relevance, and iterate often—just like you’re doing with your mobile product as a whole.  Then assess the data and information you’re getting (or not getting) and optimize data being tracked—or even which tools are being used—to ensure you’re  generating actionable information.

Next, over time and as your analytics capabilities become more relevant and accurate, plan to generate insights from users’ cross-channel experiences, not just mobile.

Finally, ensure that everyone—including the development team—has access to the data so that they can suggest ways contribute to product improvement.

Select Tools

When should you select mobile analytics tools?  The answer is as soon as your product feature roadmap and supporting technology stack is established.  

As noted above, there are many mobile analytics tools available.  What’s more, mobile analytics tools are relatively new and immature.  So, what approach and which tool(s) to choose? 

Selection of the right analytics tools for your specific application can be a complicated task as vendors tend to be focused on various aspects of analytics; for example, app store analytics vs. crash data vs. defined user event analytics.

Here are some general principles to guide you:

• Start with what’s free and basic—a combination of Google Analytics and Flurry.  These two popular tools, along with the app store tools (if your app is in the public app stores), will provide a strong foundation.  Also, there are open source options, such as Countly, available.
• Understand your product’s category.  Don’t pick an analytics tool geared for mCommerce if your app is more focused on content delivery.  Also, assume that over time a blend of tools will be necessary to meet your specific needs.
• Understand your product roadmap.  Pick analytics tools that will grow with you—and that you can still afford—as you add features, users, platforms and/or countries.
• Look for features that enable you to clearly comprehend and quantify user behavior.  Two such features are   session playback, which lets you watch a simulation of actual users actions in your app, and heatmaps, which help you visualize which parts of your applications are highly utilized.
• Ensure that app architecture is designed to enable you to easily use multiple and/or switch mobile analytics tools as needed.
• Consider how you will track user activity across devices.  Tools like Google’s Universal Analytics track user paths across devices.

As you refine your selection of tools and approach, don’t forget to leverage enterprise data from operations, customer support, marketing or other relevant sources to build unique insights into your business and its customers.

Act

Beginning to collect product analytics data when your app goes live is missing a very valuable opportunity:  beta and/or pilot data.  A pre-release period using an early adopter group or a savvy user set (for example, through PreApps) can yield a significant amount of actionable analytic data.  

You may discover, for example, that real-world users don’t use your app the way you envisioned and you need to make navigational or usability changes, drop or add features, optimize technology performance or re-prioritize your roadmap—valuable insights that will make your general availability release more successful.

Analytics data is often your first alert—before user reviews or even a phone call from customer support—that something is amiss.  Consequently, when your app goes live establish a regular schedule to review analytics data.  If your app is customer/consumer facing you may choose to review salient data daily with a full weekly review, including carefully sifting through data to discern trends and user signals.  Make sure to provide all stakeholders with regular KPI reporting, as well as actionable insights you’ve developed.

Finally, make sure that the information generated from your mobile analytics is appropriately factored into continued product roadmap planning.  Objective data should play a significant role in feature prioritization (what to keep, improve or drop), evaluation of underlying technology performance, user experience design effectiveness, and quality to name just a few areas of influence.

Closing Thoughts

We believe that all enterprise mobile apps—whether for the employees, partners or customers/consumers—can significantly benefit from the insights enabled by mobile analytics.  We'd recommend that everyone plan to deliver durable value by developing and implementing a clear mobile analytics strategy for each mobile product in their portfolio.

Frictionless Mobile Experiences—and Why They Matter to You

We’ve all now heard how important a great mobile user experience is to customers.  But what is a “frictionless” mobile experience?

In the mobile context, “frictionless” means to simplify key elements of the user experience to the point where they’re almost unnoticed, taken for granted—and therefore truly delightful, and ultimately more useful.

Popular Examples
Let’s look at a few well-known examples:

Uber

Using location-tracking technology Uber knows where you are (you don’t have to supply an address) and the driver closest to you.  This makes getting a cab quickly one button press away—it couldn’t be any simpler.

Then, when your ride is complete, you just walk away.  No fishing for payment or tip, no receipt—no waiting while the cabbie fumbles for their manual credit card imprinter.  Secure.  Awesome!

Amazon

Amazon launched one-click buying in 2000.  Complex on the backend, but a simple-as-possible customer experience.

Now, with Amazon Dash, Amazon has made buying replenishable items even easier.  You’re out of laundry detergent?  Click a button mounted by your washer and another container of laundry detergent is shortly at your doorstep.  The cost of the Amazon Dash Button is rebated on your first purchase and shipping (with Prime) is free.  With apologies to Office Depot, this is the “Easy Button”!

Square

Square has something for both retailers and customers.  First, for retailers, Square is a small device that turns any connected smartphone or tablet into a point of sale terminal.  And transaction fees are lower than most competitors.

For customers and retailers alike, Square delights by associating your credit card with your account.  As a result, the retailer now has no need to print a receipt as your receipt will go directly to your email address—and you don’t have to carry a receipt or enter your email address (after the first time).  A very simple transaction for both parties.

Now let’s look at how to create a frictionless experience from another angle:  the learning pattern the experience requires.  Typical mobile experiences tend to be cognitive; that is, the learning pattern requires the user to read basic instructions in order to learn how to use an app.  Frictionless app experiences, however, tend to be perceptional where the learning pattern provides the user just enough information to allow an empathetic engagement where the user can “feel” their way through the experience.  No instructions required.

Here are several more examples from a learning pattern perspective:

Domino’s Pizza iPad App

By using a known, almost pre-prescribed perceptual learning pattern, customers engage and “play” with building the order they want.  Little or no cognitive learning is needed and the experience is almost entirely perceptual.  Customers are engaging in the experience without really knowing it.  The “why” can be understood by Domino’s mission statement: “Sell more pizza, make more fun."  The experience was so well received it got Domino’s a webby. 

Motion Savvy App

Natural user interfaces (NUI) are redefining what “frictionless” experiences can be.  Not only can they provide intuitive engagement patterns that are built on a perceptual learning model, they can take very complex cognitive learning patterns and translate them. The Motionsavvy mobile app uses a NUI to provide a masterful engagement model that will only become more mainstream as a learnable model.  Voice, eye tracking, gesture tracking and location will be the new input devices for these emerging models.  The “Why” is rooted in the source of all of user experience… the right accessibility offered in the best mental model.  Leap, Kinect for Windows, and Myo are all emerging and will redefine how we engage with our devices.

Shyp App

Using a very simple experience the customer becomes part of the process verses just engaging with an app. Simple, direct, and a clever model that plays on the embedded expectations that customers already have with regard to buying and selling on the web.

So, why does all this matter to you?  Because without a conscious focus on creating a frictionless experience pitfalls await.  A few examples:

• It is all too easy to simply duplicate an experience designed for the web
• Mobile’s unique hardware capabilities are not well used (e.g., GPS/location services)
• The mobile ecosystem is not effectively leveraged and you lose opportunities to add value

In short, you risk losing mobile users and that means losing significant business to competitors who are thinking how to create a frictionless experience.

How to Eliminate Friction
So, how can you make your mobile users’ experience frictionless?  Here are a few suggestions to get started:

• Simplify registration and authentication.  Use Facebook, Google+ or another service—don’t make users create yet another user account with IDs and passwords they won’t remember.  Use biometric authentication—no one forgets their thumb.  And don’t make a user log in unless they have logged out on purpose (secure apps like financials, healthcare, excepted).
• Respect users’ time (and lack of patience).  Can data be loaded in the background?  Can important information be shown on one screen instead of two?  Can a transaction be completed with one tap instead of two?  Or better, can you do something valuable for the user without their explicit input (e.g., use location services to fix their location, determine time to get to an appointment, etc.)?
• Use appropriate learning patterns.  “Intuitive” is overused when describing mobile user experiences.  But what we’re aiming for is an experience that flows (e.g., is perceptional), needs almost no explanations, clearly identifies objectives and makes it easy to perceive how to reach them.
• Remember.  Remember me and my data so that I don’t have to re-type anything.  If I have to input data, make it easy—for example, accept voice input or a text message (see what /Slash has done to make things easier).
• Leverage context.  Is the user at home, in a store, at an event or favorite haunt?  If they’re in a store, push information they want like offers or coupons.  If they’re at an event, inform them when friends are nearby.  Anticipate needs and desires.
• Technical ecosystem.  To make things even more seamless, make sure you take advantage of the users’ technology ecosystem.  For example, a user may have a smartwatch, TV device, tablet, etc.  How can those devices—all with their unique usage contexts—become part of a complete and satisfying experience?
• Experience ecosystem.  What partnerships with other apps might support your offering of a complete experience?  For example, Spotify partnered with Nike+ and RunKeeper to deliver music while users are exercising.  Sonos, who makes wireless audio systems, partnered with Pandora and Spotify to enable Sonos users to play their music libraries from directly inside the Sonos app.  Less friction, more satisfaction.

And, last of all, pay attention to the user experience through analytics and automated reporting of application issues—there’s always room for improvement.

Closing Thought
Create the frictionless mobile experiences users crave and meet your business objectives successfully.  Do something amazing!