Analysis Artifacts

When to Use

• When asked to do a "deep dive" or "analysis" on a question with a non-obvious answer
• When the analysis requires exploratory querying in BigQuery
• When the output should be reproducible and shareable (not just a one-off answer)

Workflow

1. Scaffold the analysis directory

At the start of every analysis:

• Create a new directory in the analyses folder, named according to the existing pattern there
• Create subdirectories: /assets/queries and /assets/visualizations
• Create a README.md at the root of the new directory — this is the main readable document for the analysis

2. Plan the analysis

Always create a plan before starting, whether or not the user asked for one. Steps in the plan should map to the logical sub-questions or sub-areas you've deemed important to explore. Present the plan and wait for a go-ahead before proceeding.

3. Set up the README

Once the plan is approved:

• Add a title, author, and date to the top of the README

• Add a Problem Statement section summarizing the analysis question and the sub-pieces you'll explore

• Add a Cohorts Definition section. This must be extremely explicit about the groups being compared. If comparing two groups (e.g., free vs. paid, new vs. old, before vs. after a milestone), define cohorts in a way that controls for confounding factors. Consider:

  • Signup/activation time (as defined by your product — e.g., first login, first meaningful action); this relates to user tenure
  • Plan type or subscription tier (e.g., free vs. paid)
  • Controlling for observation time window length across cohorts
  • Product-specific usage propensity metrics relevant to the analysis question

  Once defined, respect these cohort definitions in all queries throughout the analysis.

4. Create artifacts as you go

For every material step in the analysis:

• SQL query artifact: For any BigQuery query that powers a visualization, summary, or key insight, save a .sql file in /assets/queries/ with a descriptive name and a comment block explaining the query's purpose. Only create the file after you're satisfied with the results. Skip trivial or one-off lookup queries.
• Visualization or table artifact: For each key insight, assess whether it's best conveyed through a chart or a table. Lean toward visualizations. If a visualization, write a Python script to generate it and save both the script and the output image to /assets/visualizations/ with descriptive names. If a table, save it as a .csv in /assets/visualizations/.

5. Overwriting artifacts

If you need to redo part of the analysis (due to a methodology correction or user feedback), overwrite all associated artifacts:

• Replace the .sql query file
• Replace the visualization script and regenerate the image
• Replace the .csv table file

Note the change to the user when you do this.

6. Summarize the analysis

When the analysis is complete (either at the end of the plan or when the user asks), write the full README:

• Summarize each step and sub-question in logical document sections
• Be crisp and concise — avoid unnecessary verbosity
• Embed saved viz images from /assets/visualizations/ where appropriate
• Generate markdown tables from .csv files in /assets/visualizations/
• Include a small reference hyperlink to the associated query file in each section
• Add a TL;DR section near the top (after Problem Statement, before Cohorts Definition)
• Add a Key Takeaways section at the end

Examples

analyses/
└── 2024-01-user-retention/
    ├── README.md
    └── assets/
        ├── queries/
        │   ├── cohort_retention_by_week.sql
        │   └── retention_by_plan_type.sql
        └── visualizations/
            ├── retention_curve.py
            ├── retention_curve.png
            └── plan_type_summary.csv