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How Middleout investigates

You ask the questions. Middleout does the investigation.

Middleout investigates the way a good analyst would: it considers several possible causes, looks in your data for what confirms or rules out each one and reaches a conclusion with its numbers. You decide what's worth investigating.

Animation: someone asks why repeat purchases dropped in September. Middleout gathers what the company already knows and proposes three possible causes; the person adds a fourth. Middleout searches the sources for each one's numbers: it rules out two, one is confirmed and reveals something nobody had asked, and the fourth stays open for lack of data. Middleout proposes a conclusion tied to a number, the person accepts it, Middleout keeps checking it and two new questions appear. Finally, the whole investigation is saved to the company's memory, connected to what was already known.

  1. Step 1 of 7

    The question

    You ask why repeat purchases dropped in September.

    Gathers what your company already knows: how repeat purchases are calculated and what was investigated before.

  2. Step 2 of 7

    The possible causes

    You add the cause you suspect.

    Proposes several causes at once, so it doesn't settle for the first one that comes to mind.

  3. Step 3 of 7

    The evidence

    You see where every number comes from.

    Searches your sources and notes every number for or against each cause.

  4. Step 4 of 7

    The discovery

    You decide where to dig deeper.

    Rules out what the data contradicts, keeps open what has no evidence yet, and finds what nobody had asked.

  5. Step 5 of 7

    The conclusion

    You accept it and note what was decided.

    Proposes an answer tied to the number that makes it true.

  6. Step 6 of 7

    What comes next

    You take the new questions it left open.

    Checks the conclusion every day and tells you if it stops holding.

  7. Step 7 of 7

    The memory

    What you accepted is ready for the next question.

    Saves the whole investigation to memory: the question, what was ruled out, the numbers and the conclusion, connected to what your company already knew.

  8. Every investigation pushes the frontier of what your company knows a little further.

In detail

How an investigation works.

It starts with a business question

An investigation is born from a question that matters: why repeat purchases dropped, why one store sells less. You open it from the chat or ask Middleout for it directly. It has an owner and starts as yours; when it's ready, you publish it to your team or the whole organization.

Several causes at once

A rushed analysis settles for the first explanation that fits. Middleout proposes several possible causes at the same time and puts them up against each other. You can add the one you suspect: your intuition enters the investigation as one more cause and is checked with the same rigor.

Every number, for or against

Middleout searches your sources for the numbers that confirm or rule out each cause and notes where they come from: which table and which definition they were calculated with. What has no data yet isn't ruled out: it stays open, in plain sight, until there's something to answer it with.

A conclusion your team accepts

When a cause is confirmed, Middleout proposes a conclusion tied to the number that makes it true. Nothing becomes part of what your company knows until a person accepts it. When you accept it you can note what was decided, and that decision is recorded next to its evidence.

It keeps being checked

A conclusion isn't filed away and forgotten. Middleout checks it again against each day's data and tells you if it stops holding. The new questions it left open are ready for the next investigation.

It stays in memory

The whole investigation, with what was ruled out and why, stays in your company's memory. The next time someone asks something similar, Middleout starts from there instead of from zero. And from the investigation you ask, in one sentence, for the dashboard to follow the number or the presentation for the committee.

FAQ

Questions about this

How does what my company knows grow?

Through its people. Every time someone asks, analyzes or investigates with the company's data and documents, they find out something nobody knew before. Middleout keeps it so it isn't lost, and what your company knows grows with every question.

How do I get started?

Request early access. When we open for your company, you connect your sources and start asking and investigating.

Keep exploring

Go deeper

ArticleThe frontier of knowledgeWhat the frontier of knowledge is in science, what it looks like in a company, and how Middleout makes it visible and moves it with every answer.

Stop waiting weeks for an answer.

Ask and get the answer in minutes. When a number changes, your dashboards and presentations update themselves.

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  2. Connect your sources

  3. Ask, investigate and share

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