Etsy's IPO Weather Forecast: The Data Behind the Crafts

April 16, 2015 by Jason Davis in Data

Etsy IPO'd today and the company is an incredible story of empowering over a million small business men and women to sell unique and one of a kind goods online.

In aggregate, these entrepreneurs sold over $1.93 billion in goods last year, as revealed by Etsy's S1 filing. And while it took Etsy 10 years to get there, its growth is nevertheless astonishing. When Etsy acquired my startup Adtuitive in late 2009, the marketplace sold about $180 million in total goods that year. When I left after three awesome years there, the marketplace was doing an annual run rate of over $1 billion.

Product + Data, 101

April 11, 2015 by Jason Davis in Data, Startups, Analytics

You've spec'd out, wire-framed, and maybe even implemented a simple version of your website or mobile app. Maybe you even have a launch plan in place. You know that data and KPIs are a thing, but you don't know where to start?

Last Minute Eatin' at Michelin Restaurants

January 25, 2015 by Jason Davis in Data

When Daniel lost it's third Michelin star, the NYC restaurant world was up in arms. One of only ten restaurants in the country with an esteemed three star rating, the Michelin overlords had apparently decided that the USA would suffer through 2015 with only nine three star establishments.

For the unacquainted, the heralded guide was first published by Andrew Michelin himself way back in the year 1900. Designed to help motorists find their way around the French countryside and to the best in fine linen dining, the guide has maintained itself today as the gold standard in upmarket restaurant reviews.

Your First A/B Tests: A Step by Step Guide

October 01, 2013 by Jason Davis in Analytics, Data

Your A/B testing system is hot off the press, you've integrated with Optimizely, Google's Content Experiments, or maybe deployed some code of your own. You open your eyes, look around, and see a whole new world of experimental opportunities.

But suddenly, you start asking more questions and forming more hypotheses than one could possibly answer in a lifetime. Should you start testing 41 shades of background hues to see what's most attention grabbing? Maybe start by testing a rewrite of every piece of copy on your site? Or maybe you should start A/B/C/D testing your web fonts?

Eight Ways You've Misconfigured Your A/B Test

September 12, 2013 by Jason Davis in Analytics, Data

You've read about the virtues of A/B testing feature releases. You love iterating quickly, testing quickly, and continually learning in a data-driven fashion. You appreciate the importance of keeping an eye on the statistics behind your testing, and perhaps you even use a tool or two to make sure your results are statistically valid.

But, you ran a test last week, the results have been coming in for some time now, but, the data just doesn't look quite right.