🚀 Context: The Problem We Were Solving
Our client needed real-time, self-serve access to product analytics, but their existing setup was slow, manual, and inefficient:
- Data Was Not Easily Accessible: Their internal data team took weeks to generate reports.
- Engineering Bottlenecks: The data provided was raw and unstructured, requiring engineers to clean, transform, and visualize it before it could be used.
- Lack of Immediate Insights: Executives couldn’t get quick answers on product performance without going through multiple teams.
🔥 Why Amplitude?
To fix these issues, the client wanted direct access to Amplitude, a self-serve analytics tool that would:
✅ Enable instant data exploration without relying on engineers.
✅ Allow leadership teams to access insights in real-time.
✅ Simplify product analytics with easy-to-use dashboards and reports.
However, implementing Amplitude wasn’t just about giving access—the client had no event instrumentation in place, meaning there was no structured data available to analyze.
This case study outlines how we built a scalable analytics foundation, ensuring clean data, seamless event routing, and client enablement—allowing them to fully leverage Amplitude 🚀.
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🔧 Assembling the Team & Defining Scope
A dedicated team was formed to manage the project:
- Data PM – Defined project scope and ensured alignment.
- Client Success Manager – Managed communication and client expectations.
- Lead Analyst (Me) – Owned the end-to-end technical setup, training, documentation, and support.
Once the team was in place, we quickly assessed the situation.
⚠️ Key Challenges Identified
- Amplitude Project Setup & Access Control
- A separate Amplitude project was required to isolate client data.
- Project-level permissions had to be assigned, but our existing Amplitude plan didn’t support this.
- Routing Events to a Second Amplitude Instance
- Events had to be streamed into a new project, but Segment only allows one event stream per source.
- Duplicating events would increase event volume, leading to higher Amplitude costs.
- Managing Event Volume to Avoid Cost Overruns
- Amplitude charges based on event volume, and adding another instance would push us over the limit.
- A filtering strategy was needed to limit unnecessary events.
- Establishing Scalable Client Support
- With a lean team, we couldn’t afford to be overwhelmed by client requests.
- A structured support process had to be implemented to manage expectations and streamline responses
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🚀 Tackling the Challenges: A Step-by-Step Approach
To solve these challenges efficiently, we structured the implementation into three key phases:
- Technical Foundations – Setting up Amplitude, routing events, and managing costs.
- Training & Documentation – Ensuring the client could independently use Amplitude.
- Process – Establishing scalable support to prevent our team from being overwhelmed
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🔧 Step 1: Laying the Technical Foundations
Key Requirements
1️⃣ A Separate Project for the Client with Strict Access Control
The client needed a dedicated Amplitude project to ensure complete data isolation:
- Their users should not have access to our internal Amplitude project, and vice versa.
- The environment had to be fully controlled, preventing them from modifying events, renaming them, or blocking data ingestion.
✅ Solution:
- Upgraded to Amplitude Growth Plan to enable project-level permissions.
- Created a separate Amplitude project specifically for the client.
- Assigned users the Member role within their project—allowing them to explore data, create reports, and set up dashboards, but without the ability to modify event tracking.
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2️⃣ Routing Events from Segment to Amplitude
We were already routing events from Segment to Amplitude for our internal project, but Segment only allows one event stream per source.
This meant we couldn’t send the same events to multiple Amplitude projects directly.
✅ Solution:
- Used Segment’s Repeater functionality, which allows events from one source to be forwarded into another source in real time.
- For our three sources (iOS, Web, and Android), we repeated events into a new HTTP source, which was then used as the new source for the client’s Amplitude project.
- This approach gave us full control over which events were sent to the client’s instance.
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3️⃣ Controlling Event Volume to Manage Amplitude Costs
Amplitude charges based on event volume, and routing events twice would significantly increase costs.
We needed a way to only send critical events to the client’s Amplitude project.
✅ Solution:
- Controlled event flow using Segment’s Repeater and Destination Filters.
- Filtered out unnecessary events, ensuring only the most relevant interaction events (button clicks, key interactions) were sent.
- This optimized costs while still providing the client with all necessary analytics data.
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4️⃣ Dedicated Folders with Pre-Built Charts
To reduce setup friction, we wanted the client to immediately start exploring insights without having to configure reports from scratch.
✅ Solution:
- Created dedicated folders in Amplitude with pre-built key charts for:
- User Segmentation
- Conversion Funnels
- Retention Analysis
- This allowed them to start exploring their data immediately rather than setting up reports manually.
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5️⃣ Enriching Amplitude with User Traits
Basic event tracking only captures interaction data, but we wanted to enrich analytics with user-level attributes such as age, location, and user type.
✅ Solution:
- Used Segment’s User Traits functionality to sync demographic and behavioral data into Amplitude.
- This enabled advanced cohort analysis, retention segmentation, and more personalized insights.
⚠ Key Issue:
- Since user traits were synced from our warehouse (2-3 times a day) but events were real-time, some events lacked user traits at the time of ingestion.
✅ How We Handled It:
- Explicitly documented this limitation in the client’s training materials.
- Set clear expectations on when user traits would be fully available.
- Ensured users were aware that certain real-time events may not have associated traits immediately.
By implementing controlled access, efficient event routing, cost optimization, pre-built dashboards, and enriched user data, we ensured the client had a scalable, cost-effective, and self-serve analytics setup in Amplitude.
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🔧 Summary of Key Technical Setup
📌 Access & Data Isolation
- Created a separate Amplitude project with project-level permissions to ensure data isolation.
- Assigned Member roles to client users, allowing data analysis but restricting event modifications.
📡 Event Routing & Data Flow
- Used Segment’s Repeater to forward events to a new HTTP source for the client’s Amplitude project.
- Ensured real-time event flow while maintaining control over data ingestion.
⚙️ Cost Optimization & Event Filtering
- Filtered events using Segment’s Destination Filters, sending only critical interaction events (e.g., button clicks).
- Prevented unnecessary event duplication to optimize Amplitude costs.
📊 Pre-Built Analytics for Immediate Use
- Configured dedicated folders in Amplitude with pre-built key charts (User Segmentation, Funnels, Retention Analysis).
- Enabled immediate data exploration without requiring manual setup.
🔗 User Traits & Enrichment
- Synced user traits (e.g., age, location) from the data warehouse via Segment’s User Traits functionality.
- Set expectations on delayed sync (2-3 times/day) and documented potential gaps in real-time events.
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📚 Step 2: Clear Documentation & Onboarding
To ensure the client could seamlessly use Amplitude without heavy reliance on our team, we developed structured documentation and onboarding materials.
Onboarding Deck
A step-by-step guide covering:
- How to sign up and access Amplitude.
- First interactions with the platform (navigating dashboards, exploring events).
- Key best practices for self-serve analytics.
Detailed Documentation
The documentation was structured into key sections for easy navigation and self-sufficiency:
- Using Amplitude (General Guide)
- Directed users to Amplitude’s official documentation, which already covered platform navigation and core features in depth.
- Understanding Events & Tracking
- Explained the difference between server-side and client-side events.
- When to use server-side vs. client-side tracking and why client-side should not be used for key KPIs.
- Client-Specific Event Taxonomy
- Provided a custom event dictionary detailing tracked events, their definitions, and how they mapped to user behavior.
- Key Charts & Data Exploration
- Explained how to use Segmentation, Funnel Analysis, and Retention Reports—the foundational Amplitude charts.
- Documented best practices for interpreting and sharing insights.
- Real-Time Event Tracking
- How to use Amplitude’s Event Explorer to see events firing in real time.
- Helped troubleshoot missing or incorrectly tracked events.
- Advanced Features for Deeper Insights
- How to leverage Behavioral Cohorts for user segmentation.
- Using Pathfinder to visualize common user journeys and friction points.
By providing structured onboarding, guiding users to key resources, and ensuring comprehensive documentation, we empowered the client to fully leverage Amplitude with minimal support.
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🔄 Step 3: Trial Period & Hands-On Exploration
After setting up Amplitude access and documentation, we provided the client with a trial period to freely explore the platform. This phase ensured they could:
✅ Ask questions and get timely clarifications.
✅ Gain confidence in navigating Amplitude effectively.
✅ Apply best practices to real use cases before full onboarding.
During this time, we actively supported and guided them to resolve any uncertainties or roadblocks before transitioning to a structured support process.
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📌 Step 4: Onboarding & Long-Term Support
Once the trial phase was complete, we fully onboarded the client and established a structured support process to ensure ongoing success while minimizing manual intervention.
📚 Training & Knowledge Sharing
- Held bi-weekly office hours until the team was fully comfortable with key events.
- Sessions focused on event tracking, key caveats, and best practices.
💬 Structured Support via Slack & Question Tracker
- Created a dedicated Slack channel for client communication.
- Assigned one analyst as on-call support, but with a structured process:
- No instant responses—all queries were logged in a question tracker.
- The analyst addressed questions via Slack or during bi-weekly calls.
⚙️ Handling Event Tracking Issues
- Any event-related issues were routed to the implementation team.
- Issues followed a structured deployment process, preventing ad-hoc changes that could disrupt data consistency.
By establishing clear training, structured support, and a scalable issue resolution process, we ensured the client could self-serve efficiently while minimizing ongoing dependency on our team.
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✅ What Worked Well
✅ Clear Expectation Setting
- Amplitude is an add-on tool, not a full analytics solution—it should be used alongside other BI tools.
- Not a replacement for server-side data—some discrepancies are expected.
✅ Comprehensive Documentation & Training
- Enabled the client to be self-sufficient with minimal ongoing support.
✅ Structured Support & Process-Driven Approach
- Prevented the team from being overwhelmed with ad-hoc requests.
- Ensured efficient troubleshooting while keeping operations smooth.
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🚀 Key Outcomes
🎯 Clients fully onboarded in one month, gaining access to a structured, self-serve analytics environment.
🎯 Became proficient Amplitude users within another month, confidently exploring and interpreting data.
🎯 Support scaled down in two months, demonstrating the success of the enablement strategy.
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📌 Final Impact
By combining structured training, clear documentation, and a scalable support system, we transformed the client’s analytics workflow. What was previously a slow, engineering-dependent process became a real-time, self-serve analytics solution, empowering the team to make faster, data-driven decisions with minimal external support.