Last night I attended Avinash Kaushik's web analytics presentation for the SF Bay ACM Data Mining.  First of all, Avinash is an engaging presenter and humor is always on hand.  If you ever have an opportunity to hear him speak, do yourself a favor in attending.

I'm still trying to wrap my head around Avinash's Trinity concept of web analytics.  I strongly suggest subscribing to Avinash's blog.  He definitely thinks outside the box.

Here are a couple of notable acronyms from his presentation:

• HITS = "How Idiots Track Success" - Jim Sterne
• HiPPO = "Highest Paid Person's Opinion" - Avinash Kaushik?

Avinash strongly stressed using A/B testing and multivariate testing.  It is simple and extremely valuable.  These are the best ways of putting HiPPO's to the test.  Of course, we all have opinions and we should test them rather than implementing them as fact.

Another interesting point that he made was that you should measure with the intent of knowing what to ask the customer.  And most importantly, what customers to ask.  It is very crucial to walk in the customers shoes.  He has found survey results to be extremely effective, especially in moving change forward.  Being able to use the customer's words is as close as you get to the customer.