New to Analysis Focus? Start here: What is an Analysis Focus?
Your Analysis Focus is the product line, service, or sub-brand you want Gumshoe to analyze. Choosing the right focus can be the single most important decision in your report setup. It shapes the personas, topics, and prompts Gumshoe generates, so a well-chosen focus produces sharper, more actionable insights.
Why does the focus matter so much?
Gumshoe uses your Analysis Focus to decide which personas to generate, which topics to explore, and which prompts to send to the AI models. Change the focus, and you change the entire shape of the report.
Setting a clear focus:
- Produces more relevant personas, topics, and prompts
- Surfaces insights tied to one specific offering, so results are actionable
- Gives you a cleaner baseline to track improvements over time
For example, if you operate a theme park and a toy line, choosing a focus keeps the two analyses separate so you can see exactly how each is performing in AI search.
How do I select a focus?
On the Analysis Focus step of report setup:
- Review the suggested product and service focuses that Gumshoe has generated for your brand
- Select the one that best represents what you want to analyze
- If none of the suggestions fit, click Custom focus area and type your own focus into the text field
- Review the Geographic focus field below (optional, but recommended if your customer base is concentrated in specific regions)
- Choose a language specific to your target audience
- Click Continue
What should I pick as a focus?
A good focus is specific enough to be actionable, but broad enough to generate meaningful conversation volume. Strong examples:
- A specific product line (for example, "best electric SUVs" rather than "cars")
- A defined service category (for example, "catering services" rather than "food")
- A sub-brand or business unit
- An aspirational category you want to grow into, even if you currently have low visibility there
Should I run multiple reports?
Yes. We recommend one report per focus area and one per geography. Combining multiple product lines or regions into a single report muddies the data and makes it harder to see which levers are working.
Separate reports give you cleaner data, clearer insights, and better outcomes for each offering.
What if I don't choose a focus?
You can select Continue without selecting a focus, but we don't recommend it. Brand-only reports tend to produce broad, less actionable results, and you lose the ability to track performance by product line or service. Choose a focus whenever possible, even if it's aspirational.