GoPro is a major consumer electronics brand that managed to reach $1 billion without collecting any data from its products in the market. Now the company intends to transform into a data-driven organization, for which it is collecting and analyzing data to use to make informed business decisions, reports Media Post.
GoPro to use data for informed decisions
Jules Malin, manager of product analytics at GoPro, said at the Internet of Things Summit in Boston last week that the company collects data from its devices that it will analyze using the analytics system its team is developing to derive actionable insights. Since the devices are not connected, data is not collected from them; rather it is collected through consumers using the GoPro smartphone app that can remotely control the devices. Malin says that not much value is added just by collecting the data.
“Data is not analytics; you need to make sure your data can enable analytics,” he said. “Just because you’re logging things, doesn’t mean we’re going to be able to make sense of how the product is being used.”
GoPro has collected data from its products at the different levels of device functionality and is analyzing it internally. According to Malin, this has made it possible for the team to gain highly specific insights about how the products are being used in the market.
“There are three layers we’re looking at: the hardware is triggering events, the firmware is triggering events and the software is triggering events,” the executive said.
Speaking of the product marketing side, Malin said these insights can help the marketing team highlight certain features that analytics identifies as frequently used by consumers.
Karma to debut next week
Meanwhile GoPro has planned to show off its Karma drone on September 19, as can be seen in a short teaser video posted on its Twitter account. The company has not said much about Karma but has released a few short sample clips that it shot using the drone.
In May 2015 at the Code Conference, it was first revealed that GoPro was making a quadcopter, to which CEO Nick Woodman referred to as “the ultimate GoPro accessory.” At that time, the company said that it would present the product, which later was called Karma, in the first half of 2016. Now it plans to release the Karma alongside the Hero 5, in time for the holidays.
