“Data driven” is the new catchphrase that is taking businesses and all types of industries by storm. In short, to be data driven is to be rad, and for good reason. Data has become the most important commodity in digital transformation efforts because it differentiates facts from opinions. It helps organizations and teams to be proactive, make confident decisions, and even be cost effective.

At the same time, this recent emphasis on data is built around the assumption that the data we use for decisions is trustworthy. As we become more dependent on it, the potential damage it can do grows in turn.

We at F5 Labs are a cool team and are definitely data driven. So, as I was winding up 2020, I decided to use our own data and metrics systems to run an experiment on our coolness apparatus and demonstrate the impact that data manipulation can have on modern business. To do this, I teamed with our in-house data magician, Kristen. Since it was a stealth project, we worked together to understand article elements to manipulate that would not skew the metrics too much to cause an uproar (we wanted to keep our jobs). In this episode of Cool Kids of F5 Labs Break Stuff, we manipulate our own web metrics to show both how easy and how impactful it would be to skew operations in data-driven enterprises.

Data is King at F5 Labs

Like many other websites, we deploy sleuth technology to analyze every aspect of reader engagement. The data helps us measure content effectiveness, the readers’ engagement level, and analyze search queries to decide which trending topics to cover. Some of the data is used to grade authors, as well (my personal reason to get onboard this project). Kristen says, “Slicing the data in different ways gives us perspective and an edge to improve.” Figure 1 shows one such perspective: our reader distribution across geographic regions. These insights help us choose stories that cater to our audience and attract new readers.