Do data-driven companies win?
I worked at a self-described &quot;data-driven&quot; company, and the analogy senior leadership liked to make was that the company was like a machine learning algorithm, using data (particularly A&#x2F;B tests) to do &quot;gradient descent&quot; of the product into its optimal form.<p>My first take-away was that using data to make decisions is tremendously, tremendously powerful. A&#x2F;B tests, in particular, can help determine causality and drive any key metric you want in the direction you want to. Short-term, it seems to work great.<p>Long-term, it fails. Being purely data-driven without good intuition and long-term bets (that can&#x27;t be &quot;proven&quot; with data), and the product loses its soul. You can 
(and should) invest in metrics that are more indicative of the long-term. And you should use data to help guide and improve your intuition.<p>But data is not a substitute for good judgment, or for a deep understanding of your users and their problems, or of &quot;where the puck is going&quot;. It&#x27;s just a tool. It&#x27;s a very powerful tool, but if it&#x27;s your main or only tool, you will lose.