How to Apply RCA for Common Use Cases in Internet Businesses?

You are the Growth Lead for 'StyleAura,' a burgeoning e-commerce platform specializing in fashion and lifestyle products in India. Over the past few quarters, while the business has shown overall growth, there have been significant variances in performance across different categories. Notably, the women's ethnic wear category has been consistently outperforming others, while the men's casual wear category is falling behind expectations. The senior management is concerned about the underperforming categories and wants a detailed analysis to inform their strategy moving forward.

Objective:

Your task is to guide a team of data analysts through a structured Root Cause Analysis to understand the performance of different product categories, identify underlying issues, and recommend strategies for improvement. You need to ensure the team uses a data-driven approach, leveraging the vast amount of customer interaction, sales, and feedback data available.

Specific Questions:

• 1. Defining Metric Hierarchy: What key performance indicators will you establish for each product category, and how will you break them down for detailed analysis?
• 2. Conducting Exploratory Data Analysis (EDA): How will you guide the team to dissect the performance trends over time and correlate them with specific business actions or market events?
• 3. Investigating Underperformance: Based on the EDA, what hypotheses will you formulate specifically for the underperforming men's casual wear category?
• 4. Analytical Techniques: What specific analytical techniques will you employ to validate these hypotheses and gain deeper insights into category performance?
• 5. Actionable Strategies: Based on the analysis, what strategic recommendations will you make to the management to improve underperforming categories and sustain high performers?