What are the core metrics of your business?

Today’s question is not “What else can we display?” but “How can we improve the numbers that we display?” At least, that’s what Vlad Gidea, in charge of Product Growth at GoMore, reveals in our video about how GoMore displays dashboards with Airtame.

GoMore, a platform for private car leasing that takes a revolutionary step within car ownership, finds itself in need of tracking their data and performance on a daily basis. As Vlad points out: the right data leads to the right decisions that subsequently achieve the right goals.

Needless to say, they use Airtame’s wireless HDMI capabilities to display KPI dashboards on each of their floors to keep the teams productive and on track to success. Nonetheless, what’s really worth discussing is how they use it to display the ‘can’t live without’ metrics on their screens. That’s where Vlad steps in:

Patricia (Outbound Manager, Airtame): Do you use Airtame: True or False?

Vlad (Head of Product Growth, GoMore): True. 🙂

P: How many? And why did you acquire them?

V: Well, that would be four. We were interested in the Airtame devices because, first of all, it allows us to get rid of some cables and that is always an added value in a company where you want your offices to be as clean as your designs. The GoMore office is a nice and well-designed place and Airtame contributed to that and increased the value of our offices.

On top of that, I really like that even if two people are using the same presentation, I can switch to my screen or to the other person’s screen back and forth. So, initially what attracted me the most were these connectivity features.

As we started using the Airtame devices around the office, we saw how easy it actually is to use the devices’ dashboard feature. My previous experience consisted mostly of the DIY solutions.

If you wanted to display a very simple link on the TV screen around the office, you would need a small Linux computer that required a lot of maintenance, right? It also required people to update the software that would sometimes be buggy. This time, at GoMore, we decided to go for the professional option, and we chose Airtame.

The GoMore office is a nice and well-designed place and Airtame contributed to that and increased the value of our offices.

P: How has Airtame made it easier to visualize your company’s data?

V: Well, like I said, the solution we used before wouldn’t refresh the link, so although our dashboard was a real-time one, it wasn’t actually real-time.

So, sometimes when we would go grab a cup of coffee, I remember one of my colleagues, Martin, would hit refresh on a little key that was dangling around and that’s not how GoMore is. We wanted to fix that issue once and for all (laughs). So, having the Airtame device update itself was exactly what we were looking for. We just didn’t know that there was such a product out at that time.

P: You keep telling me about displaying data. How important is it for GoMore to keep track of your data? Why? What are the outcomes? How does that affect your decisions?

V: It’s crucial. Even if not all our decisions have a right-away effect, the type of startup that has global ambitions will always look into more of a long-term view. This means focusing more on seasonality and metrics that relate to behavior and not necessarily to easy wins or to vanity metrics.

And I think my biggest focus is to harvest the data, collect, and manage the reporting, while everyone else’s need was to have real-time data, real-time information. As for me, I would actually wanna know when I go grab that cup of coffee exactly how many leads were generated today by the guys downstairs in Sales.

P: Do some teams use different data than others? Why?

V: Yes, definitely. That’s one of the key parts of GoMore: first of all, we must divide based on the market, based on users, and, thirdly, based on the value proposition. It can get a bit hectic and complicated, but the Sales or Support team, they get metrics that are tailored to their day-to-day job.

P: What is your ‘favorite’ part of the day to use the data that the dashboards display?

V: To be honest, I saw an increase in the conversations that we’re starting in the teams and that’s just because you have some information in front of you, so why not use that when you’re just chit-chatting over a coffee? It sounds like I drink a lot of coffee (laughs). But, that’s the point, right? Having the data in front of you and not relying on assumptions is what creates value for GoMore.

Having the data in front of you and not relying on assumptions is what creates value for GoMore.

P: So, long story short, anybody can use the dashboard at any time of the day.

V: Yes. I don’t know if you can see, I have one behind me right now (chuckles).

P: Indeed you do (laughs). So, tell me: How long does it take to set it up?

V: Setting up the screen was actually very fast. We had a meeting with some great people from Airtame who dropped by and I initially set aside a full hour for that meeting, but basically setting up the Airtame together with the dashboard took us just 2-3 minutes. I think it took even less than 2 minutes. It was insanely fast, because we were laughing about it, like, “So what are we gonna do now? “(laughs).

P: Speaking of dashboards, which dashboard service do you use? Why?

V: Well, that was a very complicated choice to make because you know, there’s so many tools out there, and sometimes you’re only as good as your weakest tool. In the past, we used other solutions where we had issues integrating a lot of the analytics platforms or our own data layer.

What I found to work best was Geckoboard and it wasn’t only because you have a lot of services you can connect. The main reason was the design. I feel a lot of dashboards or companies that have the purpose to visualize data, they kind of miss out on really good, clear design and Geckoboard has that. So we went with them. We also wrote a script together to export some mixpanel events, but that’s a long and more geekier story (laughs).

There are so many tools out there, and sometimes you’re only as good as your weakest tool.

P: And so, what’s your opinion, do you think that Geckoboard dashboards work smoothly with your Airtame devices?

V: Yeah, and I looked a bit behind and I think it’s caching the dashboards, so when it’s refreshing it’s just piggybacking on Geckoboard’s mechanism to retrieve real-time data. I’m actually glad that I don’t have to do any troubleshooting in the links between Airtame TV and Airtame Geckoboard and I can just focus on the little box and little issues when it comes to our data platforms and that’s actually where you’re supposed to use most of your time. Not to set up the devices, but to actually get the value out of them.

P: And the last question for you, Vlad: What is your advice from a strategic point of view, on using dashboard services?

V: I recently read that being an entrepreneur and working in a startup actually produces more stress than working in a regular job. I think, the first step to reduce the stress level is not to fuel your business with assumptions and always make sure that you’re walking on a very proven path, on something you can go back and see, like, “OK, I’m actually not so stressed that we have this outrageous goal, because I split it into key battles that we must win to get there.”

And I think, sometimes, people working in a startup are mostly in sales mode and not necessarily in thinking mode on ‘how I can actually make an impact’. We’re presenting the same narrative as we do to our users and bragging about our services and we start drinking our own Kool-Aid so to speak. So, that’s why I think that data-driven teams will have less of a stressful activity and just a better time overall delivering on their goals.

P: I couldn’t agree more. Thank you for your time Vlad. Great input!

People working in a startup are mostly in sales mode and not necessarily in thinking mode on ‘how I can actually make an impact’.

You will agree with Vlad when he says that it’s not only important to be able to display on your office screens, but what you display also plays a major role. In this case, Geckoboard takes dashboard display to another level. More than 2,000 organizations that use Geckoboard happily track performance, expedite internal reporting, and promote data-driven decisions.

Now, you can imagine the outcome of the Airtame + Geckoboard equation yourself. It becomes the core engine of GoMore and of any business that steers people in the right direction.

Interested? Let’s talk.