Warehouse-first data strategy at ClickUp from Coalesce 2023

"We have users and customers, and so what is their profile? So what are all the demographics? …What is the customer's journey?”

Marc Stone, head of data at ClickUp, explains how the company has taken a proactive approach to data, driving business value beyond traditional data products and dashboards. He covers the journey of the data team's growth, with a focus on the use of modern data tools and strategies.

Engaging with front-line business units and understanding the processes that generate data are crucial for an effective data strategy

Marc emphasizes the importance of the data team actively engaging with front-line business units like marketing and sales where revenue is brought into the business. He stresses, "The most important part is to not shy away from the business stakeholders like marketing and sales, where revenue is brought into the business, and really engaging with those."

Data teams need to understand that the data they analyze is directly tied to business processes. "Data only exists because business processes exist, and if business processes don't exist, you'll have very bad data, and everything built on top of it will be bad," explains Marc. Engaging with business stakeholders early and investing in educating those who will be using the data is key for long-term success.

Data is a driving force behind modern sales and marketing operations, and dashboards are just the first step

Marc stresses the vital role of data in modern sales and marketing, saying, "I believe that data is the fuel of modern sales and marketing." Therefore, data teams should invest resources to make sales and marketing operations more efficient.

However, Marc also points out that dashboards are just the first step in data utilization. "Dashboards are really just a first step... they're a very, very useful way for us to explore data and to communicate with stakeholders, but then taking those dashboards, and all of the learnings that are locked up in the data team, and unlocking those into data products…that can then directly drive improvements in the company itself."

Standardizing and consolidating data processes is key for an effective data strategy

Marc emphasizes the importance of standardizing business processes as the first step in any data program. "Standardized, consistent business processes… that's the first step with any data program, and if you don't do that, you will spend years wasting money by not actually getting any impact because you won't know what the actual target outcome was…”

“[By] building a global marketing dashboard...we're able to know how many channels people interact with leading up to a signup, and then we can hold on to that information in the warehouse,” he adds.

Data teams can drive business value by creatively solving problems and optimizing processes

Marc shares several examples of how the data team at ClickUp has driven business value. One project involved predicting traffic value for optimizing marketing spend.

"We use all of that stuff in the warehouse…which campaign they came from, how many emails we've sent them, whether they've opened them, how much product data they have been consuming, or how much they're engaging with our company in general, and we try to predict in those first 14 days. ‘Is this somebody who is likely to convert to a paid plan? How much do we think they're going to be worth when they convert to a paid plan?’” explains Marc.

By creatively applying data and machine learning models, the company was able to significantly decrease the cost to acquire a customer. "Because of that, over the last six months or so, we've seen the cost to acquire a customer go down by about half."

Marc’s key insights

• ClickUp's data strategy involves engaging with the company, proving the impact of data projects, and working closely with business stakeholders like marketing and sales
• The company believes that data is the fuel of modern sales and marketing. They have invested a lot of resources into making their customer acquisition process more efficient
• ClickUp sees dashboards as just a first step. They aim to unlock the learnings from their data team into data products that can drive improvements in the company
• The company believes that standardized, consistent business processes are the first step in any data program
• The company uses a warehouse-first strategy and has built its warehouse to be a source of truth for the business
• ClickUp's data stack includes Snowflake, dbt Cloud, Fivetran, and Census
• The company uses machine learning to predict customer value and optimize their marketing spend