When you set up a report in Gumshoe, the Analysis Focus tells Gumshoe which part of your business to analyze. It is usually a product line, service, or sub-brand.
The Analysis Focus is one of the most important inputs in your report. It shapes everything that comes next: the personas Gumshoe generates, the topics it explores, and the prompts it sends to the AI models. A focused report produces focused, actionable insights. A broad report with no focus produces broad, hard-to-act-on insights.
How does the Analysis Focus work?
The Analysis Focus is not a filter applied after the fact. It is an input that guides Gumshoe in building your report from the start.
When you set a focus, Gumshoe uses it to:
- Generate personas that match the customers most likely to consider that product or service
- Identify topics and buying criteria relevant to that offering
- Write prompts that reflect how real customers would ask AI about it
Because the focus guides generation upstream, changing it changes the entire shape of the report.
Why run separate reports for each focus?
We recommend running one report per focus area and one per geography. Combining multiple product lines or regions into a single report muddies the results and makes it harder to see what is actually working.
Separate reports give you:
- Cleaner data, with each report tied to one offering and one audience
- Clearer levers, so you know which content, pages, and sources are moving the needle for that product
- Better outcomes, because you can take specific action based on specific insights
What should I choose as a focus?
A good Analysis Focus is a product line or service that is meaningful to your business. Some examples:
- A multinational brand with retail, cloud, and logistics arms might run a focus on "cloud services" to isolate AI visibility for that business unit
- A bakery that also offers catering could focus on "catering services" to see how that offering shows up in AI, separate from the retail storefront
- A software company launching a new product can run a focus on the new product to track how AI models learn it over time
Can I use a focus for something I'm not known for yet?
Yes, and this is one of the most valuable ways to use the feature. If your brand is pivoting into a new category, or if there's an offering you want to grow visibility for, set that as your focus. You will likely see low scores to start. That is the point. You now have a baseline to improve against, and Gumshoe will show you where the opportunity lies.
Is the geographic focus the same thing?
No. The geographic focus is a separate setting that tells Gumshoe where your customers are located (not where your business is headquartered). If you want to cover multiple regions, run a separate report for each.