StartUp Founders: Black Box Decision Making

Dear Reader,

Vanity is website traffic without conversions. Sanity is understanding why. It’s the difference between knowing what your product does and why it does it. Welcome to observability – where data meets reality. (𝕏)

Data, combined with inference and judgment, helps you find the root cause of everything. You see, you understand, and you act.

TL;DR: Observability isn’t just about collecting data; it’s about using it to see your product through your users eyes to build a product they can’t live without. Observability Workbook.

LAST WEEKS FRAMEWORK:

3.1 AI First Era: Foundational Building

LETS GET INTO IT:

Your gut feeling as a founder is insane. The founders who lean in to data have a transformative experience, especially those who see hidden signals. Raw data is just noise without the right tools to interpret it, you are one of those tools.

Observability isn’t just about your app’s performance; it’s about understanding the entire customer journey, from their first click to a successful checkout, and how you support (or hinder) that experience.

• Why are users abandoning their shopping carts? Unexpected costs, complicated checkout process, or something else?
• Why are users not engaging with a particular feature? They don’t understand its value, it’s difficult to use, or it doesn’t meet their needs?
• Why are some users churning at a higher rate than others? Is it pricing, lack of features, or poor support?

It’s more than clicks, events, or time spent (the what). Its digging deeper to uncover the why, intelligence that informs product, marketing, and the business. Finding the root cause of something, good or bad, and doing something about it.

​The Observability Deck: Your Data-Driven Journey To Find Out Why

If you’re still here, you’re probably not sold on why you should care?

Observability is the difference between building a product that works vs fighting to create one that’s truly exceptional. It’s about answering questions that SHOULD keep you up at night:

• Why are users abandoning their shopping carts?
• Why aren’t they engaging with that new feature?
• Why are some users sticking around while others are leaving?

The Observability Stack lets you connect the dots, uncover the root causes, and make decisions that actually move the needle.

It’s all hyper related, you cannot look at your data in a silo.

EX: You see a high volume of cart abandons, yet the experience is perfect, the app is working, you assume price – nope, the latency on your metal is driving people to give up…. only data would connect those dots.

The User: Track their every move, from demographics to in-app behavior. Understand their journey, pain points, and motivations.

The App: Monitor performance, errors, and feature usage. Ensure a smooth, seamless experience for every user interaction.

The Metal: Keep your servers and systems running smoothly. Optimize for speed, reliability, and scalability to handle any traffic surge.

Stop flying blind. It’s not about becoming a data nerd; it’s about becoming a smarter founder.

If you need help connecting the dots, feel free to grab time with me.

Now go meet reality.

— James

(LinkedIn | Tiktok | Twitter)