How Aunalytics Applied the Product Process to Give Mid-sized Companies Answers through Data

Big data is only getting bigger, and it’s driving many of the decisions business leaders make every day. So after 15 years as a data analytics company that supported mid-sized businesses, leaders at Aunalytics identified a gap in the market they were uniquely positioned to fill through their platforms. The South Bend company partnered with Innovatemap to improve its existing offerings, create a robust new tool from scratch, and embrace the language of product. The result? An evolution for Aunalytics built on realigning their work around the product process to scale faster and stronger. 

Problem 

Aunalytics first connected with Innovatemap’s product design and research teams when leaders wanted to grow their internal Aunsight data platform and share it with the world. They knew they had an original tool to empower businesses with data, but first, they needed to update their platform with a compelling user interface to best serve a wide audience. 

Aunalytics also knew it needed to communicate its value. With an industry as complex as data analytics, Aunalytics had to cut through unclear jargon and learn how to speak about its platforms in a more inventive way. That also meant teaching the company’s many departments, from IT employees to the sales force, what story to tell. Most important, the message had to shine where humans weren’t around to deliver it, such as through the landing page on the Aunalytics website, the introduction pages describing the products, and the company brand. 

Solution

With guidance from Innovatemap’s product design and product management teams, Aunalytics took its existing Aunsight tool and conducted usability tests to develop concept designs. The goal? To keep the platform relevant as the way businesses understand data continues to mature. The real benefit of the user research process, as Katie Lukes (Principal, Product Strategy) describes, is that it’s “not only helpful for the user so that they can solve their problems, but it also creates efficiency for your company.”

A few months later, Aunalytics came back with a new idea: “Project Z,” a bigger and better data analytics tool to empower business users with access to and thoughtful analysis of their own data. Project Z dawned into the Aunalytics Daybreak platform, which now cleanses, integrates, enriches, and organizes data to easily surface insights for users, at any level of the business. Starting with a foundation of user research, our UX designers developed concepts and early designs to translate ideas into a powerful working product. 

It’s the work on the Daybreak platform that built a new bridge to a more focused product marketing strategy for Aunalytics. The company kept moving, according to Leanna Adeola (Principal, Product Marketing & Brand), because “they had the seed in their head and a vision for what they needed to do, but they didn’t know how to get their company to the next step.”

This philosophy underpinned the Aunalytics and Innovatemap relationship, creating a dynamic where Innovatemap could serve as a product partner and uplift Aunalytics to keep progressing — not just for a few months, but from beginning to end in a process that spanned two years. Aunalytics leveraged Innovatemap’s product marketing and brand experts to decide how to best communicate their new offerings. They also drafted a plan to unify how the Aunalytics team talked about its products across the company. For Aunalytics, the effort to harmonize their brand image resounded through the company and changed how teams thought and spoke about their work. 

Takeaways

The launch of Aunalytics Daybreak cemented the company’s growth in the data analytics space, helping them scale quickly and touch more lives. As Aunalytics President Rich Carlton concluded, “where we are really unique is we aren’t just a software tool. And this is what Innovatemap helped us see: that our combination of technology and talent results in ‘insights as a service.’” 

On the product marketing side, Aunalytics cemented its position as a leading data insights powerhouse. Aunalytics made a conscious decision to embrace the process and answer tough questions about who they are, and where they are going. Bringing a product idea to life is no easy feat, but Aunalytics used collaboration and the power of conversations to move their work forward. They walked away not only with a new website, but with new marketing assets, new products, and everything in between.

Above all, Aunalytics emerged with a stronger understanding of the language of product itself, and an underlying sense of self-reliance to propel them, and their clients, forward. 

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