Stories On Data Failures And Triumphs

Coke launch failure

In 1985, New Coke was launched, replacing the classic Coke formula. The company had done taste tests with 200,000 people and found that test subjects preferred the taste of New Coke over Pepsi, which had become a tough competitor. Based on this data alone, classic Coke was taken off the market and replaced with New Coke. This was seen as the solution to take back the market share that had been lost to Pepsi.

But as it turns out, New Coke was a massive flop and the company ended up losing tens of millions of dollars. How could this have happened with data that seemed correct? It is because the data wasn’t complete, which made it inaccurate. The data didn't consider how customers would feel about New Coke replacing classic Coke. The company’s decision to retire classic Coke was a data-driven decision based on incomplete data.

Mars orbiter loss

In 1999, NASA lost the $125 million Mars Climate Orbiter, even though it had good data. The spacecraft burned to pieces because of poor collaboration and communication. The Orbiter’s navigation team was using the SI or metric system (newtons) for their force calculations, but the engineers who built the spacecraft used the English Engineering Units system (pounds) for force calculations.

No one realized a problem even existed until the Orbiter burst into flames in the Martian atmosphere. Later, a NASA review board investigating the root cause of the problem figured out that the issue was isolated to the software that controlled the thrusters. One program calculated the thrusters’ force in pounds; another program looking at the data assumed it was in newtons. The software controllers were making data-driven decisions to adjust the thrust based on 100% accurate data, but these decisions were wrong because of inaccurate assumptions when interpreting it. A conversion of the data from one system of measurement to the other could have prevented the loss.

Crate and Barrel Success

At Crate and Barrel, online sales jumped more than 40% during stay-at-home orders to combat the global pandemic. Currently, online sales make up more than 65% of their overall business. They are using data insights to accelerate their digital transformation and bring the best of online and offline experiences together for customers.

PepsiCo Success

Since the days of the New Coke launch, things have changed dramatically for beverage and other consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies.

PepsiCo "hired analytical talent and established cross-functional workflows around an infrastructure designed to put consumers’ needs first. Then [they] set up the right processes to make critical decisions based on data and technology use cases. Finally, [they] invested in the right technology stack and platforms so that data could flow into a central cloud-based hub. This is critical. When data comes together, [they] develop a holistic understanding of the consumer and their journeys."