To my readers,

It is with regret that I must inform you that I have been laid off from Sun.  Thank you so much for dropping in from time to time.  I hope I have been insightful and have challenged you at times.  I'm not sure where the road will divert, but I'm sure it will be challenging, exciting and rewarding.  I have always loved math (hence my degree in math) and am expanding my search for a new job most anywhere in that field.  This means I may or may not continue in web analytics.  Regardless, I'm sure that what I've learned about data, analysis and optimization will follow me around.  It has been exciting seeing the development of the web analytics community over the past few years from a small Yahoo! group to a multitude of bloggers and an official organization.  A special thanks goes out to Paul Strupp, Eric Peterson and Avinash Kaushik.  To the Omniture experts at Sun, I will miss our lively discussions.  Maybe you'll see me at the next Web Analytics Wednesday in San Francisco.

To see where I land and my ensuing search, you may follow me at my personal blog.

I have an aversion for talking in my sleep.  So far it hasn't gotten me into trouble, but at times it has been a trailing indicator of my workload.

Last night my wife heard a noise and asked me to check on the baby.  I immediately replied, "Just check her page views."  My wife asked me what I was talking about and I replied again, "Trust me, just check her page views!"

There have been other incidents where I have asked my wife if she ran a certain report.  It really is a trailing indicator of my workload.  We brought Karys home on Dec. 12th and my workload has really picked up since then.  Work really slowed down while my daughter was at Lucille-Packard Children's Hospital for nearly two months after her premature birth.

If you want to check up on baby Karys, visit http://dustinandhadassah.com.

Do you have any funny after-hours web analytics stories? 

(Charles Bridge, Prague)

This past week I visited one of our web teams in Prague.  This trip was very crucial as it marked the first process-driven attempt at developing web analytics strategy within our organization.  You can see a flowchart of the process I am promoting within our organization.  It is based on information provided throughout the web analytics community and is no industry secret.

The web team in Prague executed it almost flawlessly.  Our schedule consisted of two parts - web analytics strategy development and Omniture SiteCatalyst training.  The only struggle that ensued was upon their learning of the vast reporting capabilities of Omniture SiteCatalyst.  Here's how it happened.  On day one I started with a presentation providing motivation for and an outline of the process.  They readily committed to the process and quickly narrowed down their three priorities.  They were also able to define their first priority KPIs that day.  On day two they requested Omniture SiteCatalyst training to begin before we went further.  They understood how to execute the process and wanted to ensure understanding of how the tool worked.  This is where the proverbial wheels started coming loose.  As I mentioned before, Omniture SiteCatalyst provides a deluge of reports.  At this point they began requesting that we add a handful of these reports.  We were able to make a compromise after I reminded them of the motivation for the process.  In the words of Albert Einstein, "Not everthing that can be counted counts..."

The remainder of the training and KPI selection went smoothly.  The crucial rule that I learned is this - "Don't reveal reporting capabilities until KPIs are selected."  I know many of you will say, "Having an exhaustive list or at least a peek at what can be tracked is important."  Here's my response:  Don't underestimate the knowledge of your web team and don't forget why you are directing the process - you are the expert.

Why I say, "It's Not Metrics!" 

When I began as an intern at Sun Microsystems, Inc. in Feb. 2005, I was told that my responsibility was web metrics.  As I became more involved in our web analytics community, Paul Strupp kindly suggested that I refer to what I do as "web analytics".  After all, you're not just collecting data, you're analyzing it.

So when will the eMetrics Summit be renamed the "Web Analytics Summit"?  And yes, they should change their URL.

I'm excitedly planning my first web analytics summit for SDN.  The concept is quite interesting.  Instead of it being for web analysts, it's actually intended for those to whom I provide reports and analysis (my stakeholders).  My mission is to motivate the effective use of web analytics through the sharing of knowledge and experience.  The agenda covers a brief outline of what we've accomplished so far, a couple of case studies provided by my stakeholders, a Q&A session, and a planning discussion.  What's most exciting is that Eric Peterson, renowned web analytics expert, will be joining us for the Q&A session.

Have you hosted a similar event?  Are you interested in planning such an event?  Do you have suggestions or comments?