Making the shift from analytics-as-a-service to analytics-as-a-product can feel daunting, especially when teams are already stretched. But the lessons shared by Tesco Bank in their discussion with Dufrain offer clear, actionable guidance rooted in real experience.
Here are the top tips taken from our recent webinar discussion.
1. Start small and with the right stakeholder
Don’t try to transform everything at once.
Choose:
- One friendly stakeholder open to new ways of working
- One high-impact use case
- One small, focused team
Deliver value early to build trust and create momentum.
2. Define requirements carefully
Chris highlighted that it’s easy to ask for “X” only to realise later that you need “X, Y and Z”. Spend time upfront defining what you require now, and what you may need in future. This ensures the product is reusable, multifunctional and built to last.
3. Shift ownership into the business
Analytics teams should build and maintain products, but the business must own:
- Commissioning
- Decommissioning
- Prioritisation
- Day-to-day use
This “you drive the car, analytics service it” model ensures alignment and accountability.
4. Invest in strong engineering skills
Engineering is the backbone of analytics-as-a-product. Without it:
- Products are fragile
- Reusability is limited
- Self-serve becomes unreliable
The team emphasised how essential a strong engineering team has been to their success.
5. Build tools that scale across teams
A well-designed analytics product shouldn’t only help one team.
Laura Castro at Tesco Bank described how customer insights tools built for pricing became equally valuable to marketing, finance and risk. One product can unlock organisation-wide efficiency.
6. Prioritise ruthlessly and transparently
Every stakeholder thinks their work is the most important. To make the model work, teams must:
- Categorise work clearly (critical → medium → lower priority)
- Stop non-essential work to free up capacity
- Be honest about what can and cannot be delivered
- Share roadmaps openly
- Invite stakeholders into planning sessions
“Ruthless prioritisation” + “ruthless transparency” = sustainable transformation.
7. Upskill business teams to interpret insights independently
If stakeholders rely on analytics for every follow-up question, you fall back into the old model.
Analytics-as-a-product requires business teams who can:
- Explore their own data
- Interpret outputs
- Dig deeper when needed
- Make decisions confidently
This capability shift is essential.
8. Use open-source tools to accelerate progress
Transformation doesn’t need to start with a large technology investment. Tesco Bank uses open-source tools to prototype and deliver early wins at low cost.
9. Demonstrate value early and often
Small wins build confidence. Early value unlocks further investment. And momentum creates its own “treadmill” that keeps transformation moving.
The route to modern analytics starts with practical steps
The shift to analytics-as-a-product requires patience, mindset change and clarity of ownership. But as Tesco Bank’s experience shows, it unlocks significant long-term value – speed, scalability, self-serve capability and richer decision-making.
These tips offer a clear, grounded starting point for any organisation ready to modernise how analytics works.
If you’d like to learn more: Watch the discussion in full here.
Recap on our previous blogs with Tesco Bank, for blog one visit here and blog two here.