Data-Driven Insights Impressed Investors To The Tune Of $2.75m.
Objective
Set up flexible reporting for an in-development app.
Obstacle
Combining transactional data with market research & customer feedback.
Outcome
Data-Driven insights impressed investors to the tune of $2.75m.
Background
Launching a new social media app is no small task, especially in a market where competition is fierce and failure rates are high. Google Play statistics reveal that 68.07% of apps never reach 1,000 downloads, and the majority fail within their first year. To avoid this fate, Picnic knew they needed to take a strategic approach. They decided to leverage data analytics during their beta testing phase to gain a clear understanding of user behavior, identify areas for improvement, and optimise their offering before the official launch. This focus on analytics wasn’t just about refining the app, it was also a crucial step in demonstrating traction to potential investors.
Challenges
Product Evolution: While Picnic had laid the groundwork for their app’s key features, they understood that their product was still in its early stages and would evolve over time. Recognising this, they opted against setting up overly-rigid reporting structures that might quickly become outdated. Instead they required a more adaptable approach, one that could focus on analysing raw transactional data to uncover meaningful patterns and insights.
Third-Party Data: By overlapping third-party market research, first-party user feedback, and their own transactional data, Picnic aimed to identify the features that would make their app “sticky” and enhance user engagement.
Solution
One Source Of Truth: Understanding the importance of data integration, we focused on creating a data stack that would seamlessly centralise and align key metrics from various sources. This included combining third-party market research with transactional data to enable like-for-like comparisons.
Rapid Implementation: In just eight weeks, we successfully set up and deployed a complete data stack for Picnic. This involved ingesting core data sources, organising them into a cohesive system, and modelling the data to ensure it was both actionable and insightful.
The Proof Is In The Numbers...
8
<$100
$2.75m
Implementation
Product Refinement: Even while the app was still in its beta phase, the data provided invaluable insights that led to some major shifts. The team quickly realised that while certain features were popular among users, they did not necessarily translate into features users were willing to pay for. Armed with this knowledge, they made significant adjustments, not just to the app’s user experience (UX) but also to the structure of their paid membership tiers.
Demonstrating Stickiness: Following the testing and changes, Picnic were able to demonstrate rapid improvements in user retention. This data not only helped validate their approach but was instrumental in securing $2.75m seed funding. The investment provided the resources needed to further develop the app and ramp up marketing efforts.
