Numbers Vs Intuition— What you should go with

I am a tech product manager and one of the first thing I do when I reach office is go through reports from the previous day and see how we are performing. It helps set priorities clear for the day. Going through those numbers and thinking in my mind, how can I improve this number, I spend next half an hour with my coffee.

But this is a new routine for me, 3 months back, when I was with my previous company, where I stayed for almost two years and launched one of the most used payment solution in India (Hint: Scan and Pay), I never looked for numbers. I was responsible for consumer app, which had more than 40M downloads and daily transactions of around 6M, but still going through Google Analytics or Reports was a once in a blue moon thing.

So this raises a question, was I doing something wrong before? Definitely not, because the product I was managing and launched, kept on growing. I still get compliments from users that it’s so simple and they love it. Mind it, I only opened Google Analytics to see user funnels twice in 2 years. I always used to go with my intuition and understanding. But, I used to do one very important thing, which I guess people miss, and that is, listen to the consumer. I used to look for feedback from consumers, friends, and peers. Then I will spend time thinking about it and if it felt right, I will go ahead and apply it. This worked pretty well until I changed my company.

So what happened now? Why have I started looking into numbers now?

Let me explain. I have moved to one of the biggest MNC of India. My previous company was one of the biggest startups in India. Looking into numbers is something, I learned here and here is why -

1. Sometimes, there are not enough sources of feedback. (Your user base can be small or not interested in giving feedback).
2. I took many decisions based on my intuition and to prove they were correct, I am asked for numbers.
3. To increase the credibility you have to back your opinion with numbers. (Especially when you have multiple stakeholders).
4. You have a deep understanding of your product, but your user doesn’t, so you can sometimes ignore basic user problems.
5. Finally, because intuition is influenced by other factors of your life. Did you had a good sleep, how’s your mood today, are you biased to a particular sect of people and so on. But numbers are fact, they can have a hazy reason, but they won’t sway with time/place/people.

So, should you go ahead with numbers only? Definitely not. You should look at numbers analyze them, then have an opinion and go with it. This way you can go back and confirm your hypothesis by looking at numbers again. People give the example of Henry Ford’s horse quote when they think about listening to the consumer, but I guess now the time has changed and people have become smarter, they have a choice now and opinions. It is a big mistake to ignore them.

So, in the end, using data and intuition together can help you make the strongest business decisions. It isn’t data vs. intuition. It’s a healthy dose of both.