Friday March 30, 2007

Metricspalooza Part 2 Was the suspense killing you?   Here are two more things I've learned about managing an Emetrics group.

You Need a Customer for Your Analysis: I think there are different schools of thought about how to choose topics to investigate.  One is to just start exploring the data and see what you can uncover.  Identify those big new opportunities that had been unknown and then advocate for change based on this new intelligence.  The other approach is to identify internally where the current business focus, existing resources and funding are and  dive into that area to provide guidance and insight to make these existing efforts more successful. 

Maybe I'm just too pragmatic, but I've seen more value come from analytics by supporting existing initiatives than trying to create and advocate new ones.  I know that sometimes you need to search out the new ideas, but there is always (around here anyway) so much near by opportunity to contribute to and see immediate value that I tend to steer my group to working with people who are ready to take action and accept help.

Web Analytics is a Profession, not a Project: I think this fact has become rather obvious in the last few years with the creation of the Web Analytics Association and the boom of the industry. 

My point, however, is to bring people into your group who have internalized this and are committed to the field.  I like to tell people that "Nobody ever said Web Analytics is easy" which is rather ironic because people actually say it all the time.  It's just that they're wrong.  It's not easy and it takes a real commitment to learn how to be good at it.  And if the people in your analytics group are not viewing this as a career, they are unlikely to last and be successful.

( Mar 30 2007, 09:52:05 AM MDT ) Permalink Comments [2]