The word “Force Multiplier,” in military usage, refers to an enabler or
a combination of enablers, which make a given force more effective than that
same force would be without it.
So what force multipliers can be used in the world of Data Products ?
Based on our experience in curating intelligent data products for
the industrial world we feel a Data Product needs a healthy dose of 2 things
1. Data Science = Seeing the unseen
( Surface actionable signals previously undetected
to bake into a data product )
+
2. Behavioral Science = Making it relevant
( Making data product relevant to the daily context of
tasks a person does to accomplish concrete business outcomes )
While there has been a lot of conversations around data science, we at
Flutura felt that it was important to balance this with conversations around
behavioral science which in our opinion is a force multiplier in driving
adoption of data products.Having created intelligence platforms for
the industrial world, we have our own share of successes and failures. One key
learning from our failed data products was the need to weave behavioral science
into data products. Allow me to share 3 real life stories from the trenches
which shaped our thought process.
Real Life Story-1 : Using gamification to reduce alert Turn
around time ( TAT) & operational risk in Connected Buildings
Flutura was solving the problem of mitigating operational risk as a part
of a Smart city project ingesting billions of events and out of condition
alerts from boilers, chillers, fire sensors, smoke sensors etc across 110,000
buildings in real time . These streaming events were monitored by our Cerebra
data product from a command center manned by 40+ command center operators.
Monitoring exceptions in a command center and responding to them in real time.
How do we heighten engagement of the console. By creating a gamified experience
where operators can level up with respect to other operators with regard to TAT
( Turn around time ) sufficiently increased engagement and minimized
operational risk from unattended alerts
Real Life Story-2 : Using Social Proof to reduce
Microgrid Instability
The other real life experience involved solving the problem of regularizing
prosumer behavior in the Microgrid space in utilities. As solar and wind power
gets integrated into the complex utility grid its important for prosumers (
folks who produce energy + consumer energy) to contribute back to the grid.So
the problem we were trying to solve was how do we decrease grid instability by
increasing prosumer stability ? Again an energy data product which benchmarked
the prosumers behavior with neighborhood behavior helped in heightening the
awareness in a humane way and achieving the grid stability outcome.
Real Life Story-3: Weaving a data product into a daily
ritual
In industrial context many assets are in the field with default factory
calibration. Exposure to field conditions necessitate re-calibration . Flutura
created an asset re-calibration reccomender ( data product) into woven into the
existing ticketing system by creating an automated ticket which can drive the
front line action as opposed to making the operator open a new application or
dashboard to use. Weaving a data product into the fabric of a daily
ritual which is routinely executed instead of making data product
consumers alter their daily routine. It is now a part of a
daily journey which is already undertaken as opposed to forming a new journey
for the data product consumer
Why is Behavioral Science important
to Data Products ?
1. It humanizes data.
It puts Big/Small data, Structured/Unstructured data, Low velocity
/High Velocity , Machine learning, Map reduce, Collaborative filtering,
Text mining, Graph theory, Apriori analysis and all the innovations
which has enabled us to solve technical challenges and neatly
bundles them it into a nice "box" which solves a real world
business problem.
2. It aligns mental models !
Enhances "Consumer Resonance Index"
Consumers of data products think differently from the creators of
data products ! Its a simple fact but as with many things simple, often
overlooked. Incorporating learning's from behavioral science can
heighten the resonance the data product has with real front line users which
impacts a business outcome. ( CRI- Consumer Resonance Index as we at Flutura
call it )
3. It makes the data invisible !
Data fades into the background and jobs which need to get done comes
into the foreground. The best data products make the data
invisible and the tasks visible ! It
really should not "smell" of algorithms or data. Behavioral
science understands these subtle nuances and the neural pathways which need to
get activated in order to drive repeat engagement with the data product and get
daily jobs done !
So how do we think about this
? 5 Conversation starters
1. HUMANIZING - How do we humanize a data product to
heighten its engagement ?
2. RITUALS - Are we hooking the data product to daily
"ritual" being performed by the data product consumer ?
3. IMPACT VISIBILITY - Are we amplifying the visibility
of the outcome achieved based on the action signals sent by the data product ?
4. CONSUMER RESONANCE INDEX - How is the data product
engaging with the hard wired mental models which are embedded deep down ?
5. CROSS TRAIN DATA SCIENTIST - Do we need to cross
train our existing data scientists in best practices from behavioral science to
reduce the risk of non adoption ?
As our friends in the military from West Point would say, "We need
more force multipliers".
Data
Science + Behavioural Science = Force Multiplier
When used in combination, these techniques deliver greater value than
when used in isolation.
For all of us at Flutura, the learning that Behavioral Science is as
important as Data Science in our arsenal to create impactful data products was
very liberating . This was an important moment of truth in
our quest to creating engaging industrial intelligence
platforms. We hope you can learn from our mistakes and good luck with
your efforts to create HUMANE DATA PRODUCTS !
