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10 Comments

How data-driven are Indie Hackers?

I was wondering who of you is actually focusing on data driven decision-making, rather than to go with one's gut.

When validating and testing ideas, there are tons of opportunities to quantify the results (e.g. customer feedback, website analytics) and use this data for making rational decisions for your business rather than by intuition or your personal experience.

I'm very excited to hear about your experiences, thoughts and opinions on that!

How do you make decisions as a maker?
  1. Based on intuition or personal experience.
  2. Based on analyzed data.
Vote
    1. 2

      As much as I Iike to consider myself very analytical, I have to agree with Rosie. Mixed on this one.

    2. 1

      I think for most of us it is the mix of both options. Leaving out that option in the poll was a little bit provocative, but in my opinion you need to make decisions based on quantified data and your experience or maybe your guts. The impact of corona on statistics and AI/ML Predictions are a good example, why it's not always a good choice to completely rely on data.

    3. 1

      This is the right answer!

  1. 2

    Both.

    Use data and facts to validate the methods you are trying but you can get tunnel-visioned by metrics.

    Tools like the free Power-BI (Microsoft) and Google Data Studio make it easy for founders to load in data and crunch the numbers.

  2. 2

    I was trained as a Data Scientist from school. Spent a couple years in the tech scene and now mainly doing Growth Marketing and angel investment.

    Although I like being analytical and use data to prove something. But I still enjoy the gut feeling adventurous approach. @nklsw

    Would love to talk about this. Are you on Twitter? Let's chat haha

  3. 2

    IMO: Gut induced & data informed - beats everything!

    1. 1

      Yes! You just need to find the perfect balance ;)

  4. 1

    When I think data, I think more quantitive things – web analytics, split testing etc. And the answer there is a lot less than I have been at bigger companies, simply because a lot more that happens now falls into the realms of statistical insignificance. We simply don't have that much traffic.

    I pay a close eye to what our customers are saying, both through semi-regular surveys and support conversations. But barely look at Google Analytics and have never run an A/B test.

  5. 1

    This is practically the thesis of my product, dwata.com. Initially I started out with a larger agenda with data management (CMS), admin, analysis and workflows. But now I am focused solely on how can businesses get insights without writing code (no SQL needed).

    A lot of businesses want to be more data-driven, but it is not easy for everyone to query business data (mostly in SQL) or third-party data like from Stripe. Merging them together, like showing status from Shipment API for each Order in eCommerce is even harder.

    I believe that if it is easier to entire teams to drill into business data, without Zero need for engineers/IT, and if sharing insights was as easy as say being on Indie Hackers forum, this would encourage more businesses to be data-driven.

  6. 1

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