Stop Reporting on PageViews
I have been at Analytics Congresses recently and was part of a discussion about the involvement of the Analyst within the company structure. Lots of whining here and many people felt misunderstood and underevaluated.
Which is their own fault.
A typical response about what to do when people enter the analytics department and ask for strange info was: “Well, then they just get a report for that.” Wrong!
If you position yourself as data and reporting deliverer instead of Business Improvement Manager then you should change your job and become a controlling employee. A perfect job title for an Analyst could be Business Development Manager, since that is what this human species do – developing new business within the digital channel. But as everybody relates this title to a different task, I am very much in favor of calling the analysts Business Improvement Managers.
Existing Business can always be improved and new Business as well; trial and error periods can be reduced in time, but only by understanding the relevant data. This can’t happen without data, figures and relevant research on existing and future planned actions. So, instead of complaining about the position of analytical approaches you need to start yelling at your CEO. Not like every other department does (we want more budget, more employees, less work, more insights) but with your weapons. And not only the CEO should be targeted; the CFO and the CMO need you as well. They maybe don’t know it yet, but they do.
Start yelling at them. Start with relevant figures, think CEO, think CFO, think CMO. Don’t think Web Analyst. As soon as you have presented relevant figures to the CEO (like ROI-increase, Cost reduction or New ways to generate customers/business he will start you love you, as well as the CFO and the CMO.
If you send the C-Level Page Impressions-Reports you get typical C-Level answers: none. Or if they respond they will say thanks for the statistics. You should no longer invest any time at all in statistics. Key Performance Indicators are the key to C-level heaven, meaning increasing your budget or valuing your work, meaning hiring Assistants for your tasks etc.
The bigger the company the more hierarchies are between you and the CEO. Be a rebel and approach him directly or go politically direct through those levels with the same strategy: delivering meaningful data that those levels understand, value and enable them to act (so they get all the honor – you will be rewarded soon enough for your competence, trust me).
Make C-Level listen to your analytics thoughts and achievements
It is time for a change in the analyst brain. Many web analysts that have been hired within the last years, act too shy or are not able to think outside their reporting box. Although those people are quite often a young generation they have not learned to be strategists, politicians or managers. It is always good to have the Analytics background like delivered by UBC or other courses but that is by far not enough. You first of all need to understand the company insights and political behavior. Grab your CEO when he walks by, gain attention with unusual insights at your direct boss’ desk. You can do that better than you currently do.
I am no longer willing to listen to analysts complaining about their situation: no responsibility, no feedback. No career. Your own fault. Act professional and combine management learnings by Peter Drucker or Fredmund Malik with Analytics competence. Otherwise the CEO will never get to know your name and help your department to grow because of the importance of your results, proposals or recommendations.
And again it is all about business and money. So, if your Analyst is in love with data that is good. If the analyst drowns in data that is bad, meaning that person might want to set up nice-to-know reports but they do not help you make (more) money. Setting up goals for an analytics department is a key strategy in order to improve their performance as well. If their performance grows, the website performance will surely do so, too. A powerful article about the need of starting to grow out of the basement into the C-Level hierarchy is also this one: Eight Questions to Ask Your Director of Analytics in the Forbes Magazine
You might not need a Manifesto to do the Analytics job right, but if it helps focus on the following topics and you will receive a powerful performance:
- Think About Analytics – not about Tool Usage
- Do Not Measure Data that does not lead you anywhere
- Never set up Website Goals that are not related with Company Goals
- Prove Colleagues wrong who think of you as a Statistical Expert
- Collect Knowledge, deepen it, discuss it and share it
- Be a CMO, CFO and CEO in one person, but don’t be an online freak – But be an online freak rather than a statistician
In general I believe that Process-Management will have a deep impact within the coming years when thinking about positioning and rewarding Analytics knowledge. Therefore the Analytics department needs to be included in those processes (starting with no brainers like: no digital marketing campaign without a tag). To position the Analytics department as its own administrative department can help enabling the Analysts (or as I now call them Business Improvement Managers) in a more flexible and better performing way. Process management is the application of knowledge and skills, tools and techniques to define and measure and report processes. And especially to improve those processes.
The Analytics Department as an independent unit within a matrix
So, never plan your internal processes without the including the Analytical point of view. It can be value based expert feeling (or fact based gut feeling) which means it is still a feeling but it is already related to and built on values and facts. The more those processes are in place and the more the analyst is not a math genius but a manager the more the company will profit from a smart combination.
Lukas Oldenburg says
February 21, 2013 at 6:25 amHi Ralf,
I couldn’t agree more with your article. This is a point that we Analysts have to hammer home more when talking to the upper levels of our hierarchies. Avinash and others have been preaching a similiar approach for years. Your graphic puts some numbers and “flesh” on it.
Nevertheless, I have the impression that most of the Analysts I know do have this mindset already, they just can’t get it across because of hierarchical/organizational restrictions/lack of presentation/persuasion/argumentation skills etc.
My impression is that most web/digital analysts would like to be a business improver, not just a measurer and reporter. But then again, what is needed most right now (if I look at what kind of people we and companies are searching for) are people who are great at implementing complicated tracking solutions and who understand the tools to perfection.
That is also (unfortunately or fortunately) where non-Digital Analysts see most of the value in a Digital Analytics Expert. Because there are already a lot of business consultants who make optimization proposals based on well-assembled Digital Analyitcs data, but there aren’t too many who can create this data, i.e. follow through with a great technical implementation of a web analytics tool, get the right data out of an API in a sustainable, automated way or find their way through the endless configuration complexity of Webtrends & Co.
So I rather have the impression that almost every Web Analyst wants to be a business consultant these days, not that too many still see themselves as just reporting squirrels. This is absolutely the right mindset (don’t report/track just to report/track), but you shouldn’t forget that by losing the focus on tool knowledge and implementation skills, we also lose the characteristics that distinguish us from other business consultants – and the skills that are heavily in need in most organizations.
Best,
Lukas
April Moore says
February 21, 2013 at 10:16 amI couldn’t agree more with Lukas on this. This is especially true in the vertical I work in – financial services. We have tons of analysts already; but no one understands our analytics tracking tools in detail.
April Moore says
February 21, 2013 at 10:17 amI meant to a say there, “no one but ME understands our analytics tracking tools in detail.” 😉
Michael says
February 21, 2013 at 7:29 amRalf, I love this article. I’m in the analytics role for several web properties at my company, and I’ve realized this. It goes far beyond numbers and into business insights.
Vanity metrics are garbage because you can’t act on them. KPI’s all the way! Thanks for the great insight.
Ralf Haberich says
February 22, 2013 at 2:28 amThanks for that active feedback on my latest article.
I agree with you, Lukas, it needs to be a perfect mix consisting of technical experts and management professionals, that is why they are so hard to find and so expensive to get. And I strongly believe, those job owners will be the future of each company´s backbone, be it financial or marketing spoken. It is always important to discuss details of an implementation or any other technical asset. But it is much more important to understand the figures and know how to talk to about what content, as well as using the data to improve.
Thanks also to April for your comment. Good to see that you have the technical strings in your hand 😉
And thanks to Michael for your positive feedback on the article. Now it is up to you to be enabled to act according to the content and have your C-Level feel the value.
Thanks,
Ralf.
Josh Nadeau says
March 4, 2013 at 4:54 pmWell put Ralf. I find in similar situations like you mentioned, a lot of the times you need to be a “doer” rather than the latter. I have found all the numbers and marketing strategies in the world don’t hold a candle to going out, getting the information and presenting them directly to the powers that be. I have made the mistake in the past of presenting my findings to some department heads who, lets be honest, can care less about the amount of time you put into certain projects as opposed to the results they bring in. I’m never afraid to jump the gun when I have the analytics to back me up. Most of the times I will save my findings until my source’s credibility is challenged. That’s when I’ll display the reports and slam dunk the proposals I am trying to get passed. Thanks again.