NorthStar Analytics

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the CEO of a tech-enabled digital ad agency that specializes in cross-channel optimization for large advertisers.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire NorthStar Analytics?

While machine learning / AI chops are the lifeblood of Nectar9, customizing reporting for clients with vastly different needs and KPIs has been a constant pain. Requirements change weekly if not more frequently, which makes developing a flexible internal dashboarding solution an expensive proposition.

Instead, we leverage Google Data Studio and NorthStar Analytics to help us not only create dashboards, but add value to those dashboards with their own insights, suggestions, and creative problem solving.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

We put a number of vendors to a test and NorthStar Analytics clearly stood out from the crowd. Top marks for quality, speed, and accuracy. Beyond that, their dedication and professionalism won us over.

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

We manage large cross-channel digital media campaigns for clients around the globe, and all have different ways of measuring the customer journey and manage their KPIs in different ways. We use Google Data Studio to develop custom dashboards for clients, but there are a lot of limitations in this "free" BI tool from Google.

NorthStar Analytics was great at knowing where the issues were, resolving them quickly, and helping us move from basic dashboarding to more advanced analytics for our customers.

How many resources from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

We have been working with the lead engineer on our projects, which are ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

NorthStar Analytics has been an amazing resource for a number of reasons. The quality of the work is great, issues are identified before clients can spot them, and we continue to rely on them for these types of services. Highly satisfied.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Very easy to coordinate over Zoom, Loom and Slack.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

The level of professionalism is at the top tier of a resource this specialized. (one that you'd definitely hire if you could - but you can't 😉)

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

Very satisfied and no complaints.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of The Really Useful Poster Company. We design and print educational music posters.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with NorthStar Analytics?

We hired them to create data dashboards to help us keep an eye on key metrics of our business. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

NorthStar Analytics designed dashboards on Google Data Studio for us, which pull statistics and data from all the different platforms we use and present them in a more usable way. 

They set up the dashboards so that when we log into the platform, we see screens with pie charts, bar charts, statistics, and all sorts of graphs. The data in these screens include how many sales we have per week, our average selling price, and other key information presented in a way that is easy to look at. NorthStar Analytics still updates our dashboards whenever we add more channels or data. 

What is the team composition?

I work with Zekeriya (Co-Founder).

How did you come to work with NorthStar Analytics?

I posted a brief on Upwork, and providers contacted me with their proposed solutions, including Zekeriya. His proposal seemed better than everybody else’s; it was a lot clearer, showed that he really understood the brief, and his pricing was fair. For these reasons, I thought he was somebody I could work with. 

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent about $2,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in July 2020, and the engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

NorthStar Analytics’ work is really good. The metrics are rather binary with dashboards; they either work or don’t. The dashboards NorthStar Analytics created for us are great; they pull data from the correct places and show information in the way we need. Their work is really useful for us to access data quickly and helps us make key decisions for our business. 

How did NorthStar Analytics perform from a project management standpoint?

They were excellent at project management. Zekeriya was really communicative and delivered everything on time and within budget. He asked questions when he needed to and got on with the work when he needed to. We communicated via email and Zoom. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’m impressed by NorthStar Analytics’ communication and understanding of their work. Dashboards can be quite complex, and their team understands the math involved and the business perspective, including what we need to see in them. They really grasped our brief and put forward the solution that we needed — that’s number one for me.

Additionally, Zekeriya’s general attitude towards the work is really great. Plus, he worked quickly and within budget, which is always important.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of anything they need to improve off the top of my head, to be honest.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Make sure that you have a clear brief and understand what you want out of working with them first. The more information you bring to NorthStar Analytics, the better they’ll understand your needs and the quicker they’ll be able to do something.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am Head of Product at Software Development Company. Since 2016 we have been design, craft and engineer end to end solutions to global companies and build own projects as a startup.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire NorthStar Analytics?

Together working with Northstar, we aimed to Design & Define a KPI Structure, Merge, Collect and visualize Data from various sources.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

We discovered Northstar by reference so reviewed their previous works. After that planned interview and we got clear proposal with details.

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

Firstly we have handshaked on scope & main milestones & estimated timeline. Secondly defined details of milestones:

1. Design & Define KPI Structure,
2. Data Merge & Collection from various sources including GA, Appsflyer, BigQuery and more)
3. Visualize data (Google Studio)

Lastly we have completed every step by iterations. As a result, with help of Northstar expertise in data collection & visualization and our product expertise in designing & building digital products (mobile application & platforms and business know how) , we have completed milestones.

How many resources from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

Two People (Founder & Data Analytics Specialist)

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

I would like explain in two parts:

1. Know how sharing with details & documentation helped us to improve our data collection & tech know how.
2. We gained flexibility with the transition to Google products (BigQuery, Data Studio).

Due to shorttime of release of our work, still we are discovering improvement areas & data health check. It seems that we will get clear visibility in a month.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

As a remote team (both my company & Norhtstar) we have used collaboration tools ( ie Miro, Google Hangouts ), plus Loom really helped async progress to listen & watch guidelines which are prepared by Northstar.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

Their past experiences, data focus, and clear vision are really impressive.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

Due to complexity of projects, data health check process may improved.