One Big Button is Built

I did go ahead and implement the “One Big Button” opportunity analysis in my sample LTV system (see last week's posts for details). As expected, it took about a day’s work, mostly checking that the calculations were correct. That still left the challenge of finding report layouts that lead users through the results. There is no one right way to do that, of course. QlikTech makes it easy to experiment with alternatives, which is a mixed blessing since it’s perhaps too much fun to play with.

My final (?) version shows a one line summary plus details for three types of changes (acquisition, renewal/retention, and cross sell), each split into recommendations for increased vs. decreased investment. Users can drill down to see details on the individual products and sources. That should tell them pretty much what they need to know.

I was eager to see the results of the calculations—remember, I’m working with live data—and was pleased to see they were reasonable: the system proposed changes to fewer than half the total products and estimated a 10% increase in value. Claims of huge potential improvement would have been less credible.

That left just one question: what should be on the One Big Button itself? The color choice was easy—a nice monetary green. But “Make more money!” seems a bit crass, while “Recommendations” sounds so bland. Since the button label can be a formula, I ended up calculating the estimated value of the opportunities and displaying “How can I add $2,620,707 more profit?” If that doesn’t get their attention, I don’t know what will.