Glossary · Analytics

Push vs Pull Analytics

Push vs pull analytics describes two delivery models for data: pull, where people go look at dashboards and run queries; and push, where the system sends insights and alerts to people when something warrants attention.

Pull analytics depends on a fragile assumption: that someone checks the dashboard at the right moment. In practice dashboard views decay within weeks of launch, and the metric drops on the day nobody looks. Push analytics removes the dependency on human routine–the system monitors the data and delivers the finding to where people already are: a Slack channel, an inbox, a webhook into another tool. The mature setup uses both: pull for deliberate exploration and deep dives, push for anything where the cost of noticing late is high. If a metric mattering means someone must act on it within hours, it should be pushed, not polled.

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