Solution Development Best Practices

Follow these best practices to construct an effective analytics solution that delivers actionable, value-driven insights to your customers.

A well-designed people analytics solution will empower organizations with data-driven decision-making capabilities, facilitate long-term strategic workforce planning, and significantly enhance their ability to retain top talent. The solution you're developing should be crafted to place the most relevant and impactful insights into the hands of the appropriate stakeholders, all while being supported by a clear, compelling value framework.

Know your target audience

Begin by identifying and focusing on a select group of key personas for your solution. We recommend focusing on 1 to 3 personas in each phase of the solution development process to ensure targeted and effective solution design.

Conduct an in-depth audience analysis to precisely identify and prioritize the most critical analytical requirements and pain points of your target personas. To ensure cohesive messaging, these pain points should also be woven throughout your marketing and sales materials, creating a narrative that consistently resonates with your customers. To gather these invaluable insights, consider employing multiple methods such as conducting one-on-one interviews with clients, organizing focus groups, or engaging in detailed discussions with your customer-facing teams who have direct, day-to-day interactions with end users.

Throughout the solution development process, consistently keep your target personas' specific pain points and potential value gains at the forefront of your decision-making. These can encompass a wide range of needs, such as rapid access to data insights, comprehensive historical data analysis capabilities, or the ability to perform cross-sku/function data analysis for holistic understanding.

Understand your data landscape

When developing solutions we recommend you have a thorough understanding of the availability, structure, and quality of the data. You want to design a solution that most of your customers will be able to provide data for. This knowledge is crucial for ensuring a robust, flexible, and future-proof solution design that can deliver maximum value to the majority of your customers. For instance, if 90% of customers can provide employee exit data and reasons, developing turnover insights will benefit the majority of your clients. In contrast, if only 10% of clients can provide demographic data like gender and ethnicity, creating extensive diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB) content would serve just a small fraction of your customer base.

Craft a compelling value proposition framework

Invest time in establishing a well-defined and compelling value proposition framework that aligns with both your solution design and the needs of your user base. This framework should serve as the foundation for demonstrating the benefits and ROI of your solution. A clear value framework includes:

• The target audience for the solution.
• The key problem statements to be addressed, with the most critical issues prioritized for the initial phase.
• Key success metrics and measures that will allow users to assess progress in resolving the identified issues.

Be enabled on Visier analytics

To maximize the potential of your solution, it's essential to familiarize yourself with the full spectrum of Visier analytics capabilities. Take advantage of the wealth of resources available, including product documentation and Visier University courses, which offer hands-on learning experiences.

A high-quality analytics solution is built upon several key foundational elements, including robust metrics, intuitive visualizations, and carefully crafted business questions. Ensure that you have a deep understanding of these critical components and how they interplay to create powerful, insightful analytics experiences for your users.

Harness the power of data visualizations

Invest time in gaining a comprehensive understanding of Visier's extensive visualization libraries, including the specific function, strengths, and optimal use cases for each visualization type. Armed with this knowledge, strategically implement visualizations that not only enhance your data storytelling capabilities but also significantly improve data comprehension across different audiences with varying levels of analytical expertise.

Iterate, iterate, and iterate

Implement an iterative solution refinement process to continuously enhance your solution's effectiveness. This should not be a siloed effort; instead, foster cross-functional collaboration that incorporates diverse perspectives and expertise throughout the entire development lifecycle. Encourage open communication channels where feedback from solution consultants, customer experience, subject matter experts, and end users can be freely shared and acted upon.

Establish and monitor success metrics for adoption

Prior to launch, define a set of clear and measurable success metrics that will allow you to assess the adoption and impact of your solution. Post launch, regularly measure these metrics against your predefined key success indicators, using the insights gained to drive data-informed decisions about future enhancements and overall solution strategy.