There are lots of questions you can ask of data. I like this model as it gives a framework for the different types of questions you might ask. It was introduced to me as the data science pyramid with descriptive analytics — measuring what’s happening — being the foundation on which others are built. You don’t have to go in order, but it’s a nice approach to consider how the questions you’re asking of your data might evolve.

To take our school Summer fête as an example, for a long time takings were all in cash and put into one bucket at the end for counting. You end up with one number for how much you raised. But you might move to collecting more descriptive data on the takings for each stall — whether the bar earns more than the tombola, for example. You then might be able to ask diagnostic questions like figuring out why one fête earned more than another with a different mix of stalls. If you know how many people came you might be able to make some predictions on the takings of a future fête based on number of people and stall types. And if you get fancy you might start to use your data to figure out how you could raise more money for the school in future.

There are many ways to slice and dice data and the questions you ask, but I like the clarifying simplicity of this one.

As far as I know, the framework is the Analytics Ascendancy model, or Analytics Value Escalator, or other such business sounding name from Gartner.

Analytics maturity

Life on a nuclear submarine is life under some pretty intense constraints. For one, there’s not naturally any fresh water and any time you use it the waste water builds up in the tanks and then has to be expelled, and when you expel it that makes noise, and because nuclear subs don’t want to give away their location they do their best to minimise the number of times they have to do that. That means taking care of all fresh water.

The other reason to take care of fresh water usage is that they have to make it the whole time — any fresh water for cooking, cleaning or drinking has to be made from sea water. If you drink a glass of water on a nuclear submarine you’re probably drinking the most expensive glass of water you’ll ever drink because it’s been desalinated by a nuclear submarine.

Hence the submarine shower with a total of 20 seconds of water: 10s with the water on, turn it off while you soap and scrub and finish with 10s of rinsing. That’s it. For me it’s a nice reframe in how much you actually need when you take a shower, and it still works. So if you fancy saving water and energy you could give it a try.

Submarine shower

Pitched as the one number you need to grow your business the Net Promoter Score (NPS) gives you a way to measure across your customer-base how many people love what you’re doing enough to tell their friends vs how many people are ambivalent or negative about your business. The resulting number, your NPS, from +100 to -100 has been shown to give a reliable indicator of companies’ future success.

To calculate your NPS ask your customers how likely they would be to recommend your business to a friend — or variations thereof — and give them a scale of 0 (not likely) to 10 (very likely) to answer on. Those who answer 9 or 10 are your biggest fans or Promoters. Those who answer 7 or 8 are passively satisfied — they like your business but are unlikely to shout about it. And anyone 6 or below are your detractors. If they talk about your business it could well be negative. Your NPS is your % of promoters minus the % of your detractors. For example, if you got 100 responses, 35 9s or 10s, 37 7s and 8s, and 28 0–6s then your NPS would be 35 minus 28 = 7.

Keep track over time and you’ll get a good sense of how your business is doing. Follow up with qualitative feedback, for instance “why did you give this rating?”, and get a recipe for improving your business. Simples.

Learn more in the original Harvard Business Review article, “The One Number You Need to Grow” by Frederick F. Reichheld.