Challenges of Contextual Integration and Collaborative Problem-solving in Data Products

This week on Experiencing Data, something new as promised at the beginning of the year. Today, I’m exploring the world of embedded analytics with Zalak Trivedi from Sigma Computing—and this is also the first approved Promoted Episode on the podcast. In today’s episode, Zalak shares his journey as the product lead for Sigma’s embedded analytics and reporting solution which seeks to accelerate and simplify the deployment of decision support dashboards to their SAAS companies’ customers. Right there, we have the first challenge that Zalak was willing to dig into with me: designing a platform UX when we have multiple stakeholder and user types. In Sigma’s case, this means Sigma’s buyers, the developers that work at these SAAS companies to integrate Sigma into their products, and then the actual customers of these SAAS companies who will be the final end users of the resulting dashboards.  also discuss the challenges of creating products that serve both beginners and experts and how AI is being used in the BI industry.  

Highlights/ Skip to:

• I introduce Zalak Trivedi from Sigma Computing onto the show (03:15)
• Zalak shares his journey leading the vision for embedded analytics at Sigma and explains what Sigma looks like when implemented into a customer’s SAAS product . (03:54)
• Zalak and I discuss the challenge of integrating Sigma's analytics into various companies' software, since they need to account for a variety of stakeholders. (09:53)
• We explore Sigma's team approach to user experience with product management, design, and technical writing (15:14)
• Zalak reveals how Sigma leverages telemetry to understand and improve user interactions with their products (19:54)
• Zalak outlines why Sigma is a faster and more supportive alternative to building your own analytics (27:21)
• We cover data monetization, specifically looking at how SAAS companies can monetize analytics and insights (32:05)
• Zalak highlights how Sigma is integratingAI into their BI solution (36:15)
• Zalak share his customers' current pain points and interests (40:25) 
• We wrap up with final thoughts and ways to connect with Zalak and learn more about Sigma (49:41) 

• "Something I’m really excited about personally that we are working on is [moving] beyond analytics to help customers build entire data applications within Sigma. This is something we are really excited about as a company, and marching towards [achieving] this year." - Zalak Trivedi (04:04)

• “The whole point of an embedded analytics application is that it should look and feel exactly like the application it’s embedded in, and the workflow should be seamless.” - Zalak Trivedi (09:29) 

• “We [at Sigma] had to switch the way that we were thinking about personas. It was not just about the analysts or the data teams; it was more about how do we give the right tools to the [SAAS] product managers and developers to embed Sigma into their product.” - Zalak Trivedi (11:30) 
• “You can’t not have a design, and you can’t not have a user experience. There’s always an experience with every tool, solution, product that we use, whether it emerged organically as a byproduct, or it was intentionally created through knowledge data... it was intentional” - Brian O’Neill (14:52) 

• “If we find that [in] certain user experiences,people are tripping up, and they’re not able to complete an entire workflow, we flag that, and then we work with the product managers, or [with] our customers essentially, and figure out how we can actually simplify these experiences.” - Zalak Trivedi (20:54)

• “We were able to convince many small to medium businesses and startups to sign up with Sigma. The success they experienced after embedding Sigma was tremendous. Many of our customers managed to monetize their existing data within weeks, or at most, a couple of months, with lean development teams of two to three developers and a few business-side personnel, generating seven-figure income streams from that.” - Zalak Trivedi (32:05)

• “At Sigma, our stance is, let’s not just add AI for the sake of adding AI. Let’s really identify [where] in the entire user journey does the intelligence really lie, and where are the different friction points, and let’s enhance those experiences.” - Zalak Trivedi (37:38) 
• “Every time [we at Sigma Computing] think about a new feature or functionality, we have to ensure it works for both the first-degree persona and the second-degree persona, and consider how it will be viewed by these different personas, because that is not the primary persona for which the foundation of the product was built." - Zalak Trivedi (48:08)

Sigma Computing: https://sigmacomputing.com

Email: zalak@sigmacomputing.com 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/trivedizalak/

Sigma Computing Embedded: https://sigmacomputing.com/embedded

About Promoted Episodes on Experiencing Data: https://designingforanalytics.com/promoted