Web Analytics Analyzed

Two Types of People One more comment on a similar topic to my last entry. I guess I've always known this, but have never digested it quite this way. And that is: there seem to be two types of people in the world: those who can take a fact and make it more complicated, and those who can take a fact and make it simpler.

Consider again the issue of "new visitors". When this data was presented at a meeting an audience member said "So, this is just the number of people coming to our web site who do not yet have our cookie?" Well, yes indeed. Well simplified.

Somebody else could have looked at the same piece of data and asked, "If a user is using tabbed browsing, will he show up as a new visitor if he visits from two different tabs? What if he is using two different browser profiles? Then what?" Good questions as well. I suppose we ought to understand that.

So, let me ask. Is a web analyst more like the first person or the second?
( Dec 12 2006, 12:45:57 PM MST ) Permalink Comments [3]

Comments:

I think the analyst silently tallies up all the complications and discards as many as possible. They're a complicator in private and a simplifier in public.
You need to simplify to be effective, but you have to be prepared for the inevitable questions about the complications or you will not be credible.

Posted by Mike Keyes on December 12, 2006 at 04:05 PM MST #

Very well written!

And it is the analysts job to tell the story of the visitors' visits through mountains of files that result in copious amounts of data - that are riddled with caveats, errors, and complexities - that no one cares about - except the analyst.

Simplifying the complex in a story that is both exciting and useful is the job of every great analyst (read: storyteller.)

As one leader explained it to me, you want to strive to be the person that can talk with anyone about rocket science, and they understand and hang on every word. This is extremely difficult to do, and takes lots and lots of practice.

Posted by Dylan Lewis on December 12, 2006 at 10:59 PM MST #

I like that: "Complicator in private; simplifier in public." Kinda like Superman.

Posted by Paul Strupp on December 13, 2006 at 05:20 PM MST #