measure

Data Analytics challenges in the real world

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Happy Friday !
A short insightful video from McKinsey about are the challenges for businesses with data analytics and what to make of it ? Big data challenges: volume, velocity & variety and also determining which data to use: defining your measurement strategy, broaden your methodology to include external data such as competitive data, markets data… how to visualize those analytics data to facilitate their usage & communicating to stakeholders to act upon it !
In summary:

Turning your pile of data into actionable insights to make the difference among your industry!

A lot to cover, that’s why our job are so exciting !!!!

My previous articles about this topic:

Analysis Exchange, a great initiative for Analytics passionate and non-profit in need!

Analysis Exchange, a great initiative for Analytics passionate and non-profit in need!

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If you are passionate by Web Analytics and willing to give some of your time for a good reason, please continue reading and hopefully I’ll convince you to sign up as well !
I took the great and challenging opportunity to sign-up as a Mentor for the Analysis Exchange and participated to one project so far for WWF Vietnam.
What is the Analysis Exchange?

I signed up in July 2012 and finally participated to my first project recently. The project was with WWF Vietnam website that we helped to ensure that their analytics platform – Google Analytics – was properly set up and we tried to guide them into taking the most of it.
As a mentor, I tried to give guidance to Trish – the student – who was very involved and willing to provide the best to WWF Vietnam. On the first meeting with WWF Vietnam, we* came up with a simple project plan to define WWF Vietnam objectives in this project, our objectives as analytics consultant and deliverables they could expect from this project.
*By we, I mean Trish and myself knowing that Trish did all the hard work, I was here for her when needed and to give her advice and guidance in the way to approach this project and some documentation as well.

For privacy purpose, I will not go into too much details about WWF Vietnam expectations, however the project objectives were the following:

    • Ensure appropriate configuration of current Google Analytics tracking tools
      Identify key traffic metrics to be gathered, analyzed now, and monitored in the future
      Provide insight into Analytics data for WWF-V team moving forward

    • 3 main deliverables came out of this: we started with a 1) technical audit to understand their Google Analytics configuration and take this chance to help them configure some customized variables to get a better grasp on their users’ engagement against their content.
    We then configured for them 2) a dashboard displaying the key metrics and following a straightforward “visitor journey” structure and answering to their main business question.
    For instance:

    Lastly, we configured for them 3) two custom reports, one focused on the traffic sources performance and the 2nd one focus on their article performance.

    About the experience in itself, here is what I would bare in mind for the next ones:
    Pitfall : Timing and Scope
    Before participating to this project, I read another article where the writer, speaking of his past experience in the Analysis Exchange, encountered the same issue for his project. Even though the project is supposed to last around 3 weeks and even though I was aware of this possible issue, we end up spending around 2 months on the project.
    Why? It would be a fair guess to say that the issue was coming from a too large/vague scope which I should have notice and reduce from the beginning. However, at the end our project didn’t fail, we just spent more time than expected at the beginning.

    Tips for success: Communication
    – Good relationship with the student and the organization
    – Allow regular time to discuss with the student
    – Review and agree on the scope with the organization to make sure that the work scope stay reasonable
    All those items turn around Communicate, Communicate, Communicate!
    If there is one thing, I’ll do differently for sure next time, it will be to make sure that the organization stay in the loop all along the way and engage them even though they are not very active.

    Aside from being pretty happy to have one of my action item from my 2013 Analytics roadmap achieved, it was a really interesting and rewarding experience that I look forward to renew ! And again, if you have the time and desire, sign up 🙂

    Why should you sign-up?
    Student: It’s a great opportunity to have hands-on experience on analytics and support from experience analytics professionals and your resume will certainly not suffer from it !
    Mentor: No need to emphasize a lot, as soon as you are passionate I guess it just make sense to spread the love…
    Organization: A great, great, great opportunity for FREE to get insight on your website, understanding users behavior and get some sense of what could be optimized, what is already working very well, where the budget should be spent…

    Want to know more? Need inspiration, Documentation for a Non-Profit measurement framework?
    – Analysis Exchange Website
    – Analysis Exchange Blog
    – Analysis Exchange Twitter
    – I just ran into this fantastic post from Justin Cutroni which bring grist to my mill: “Measuring the Non-Profit: From Planning to Implementation“, in the nick of time!

    AdobeSummit 2013, 1 week later… what are the takeaways?

    AdobeSummit 2013, 1 week later… what are the takeaways?

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    Following my previous blog post about AdobeSummit, I’ll try in this blog post to list out everything that catch my attention. I’ll be undoubtfully missing a lot of what has been said but I’ll list also every other ressources available.
    As usual, proud to be a data nerd thus data first!
    Check out Summit by the Numbers by Michelle Kiss

    Let’s start with the end:

    1. “Adobe Sneaks”

      2. This session which took place at the end of the Summit exposed features that are either in development or beta testing.

      Here they are:
      #BoomData – bringing in through drag and drop external data such as offline data from a good old fashioned but reliable Excel file and overlaying SiteCatalyst and dashboards
      #SeeAndBelieve – data-vizualisation oriented feature or next generation of Pathing reports, pivoting around any points, including conversion.
      #QuickTrend – real time trends & insights collection for for content/conversion/acquisition with drill-able data.
      #Automagic – next generation of existing SAINT feature, a rule builder application relying on Regex to facilitate campaign tracking codes or else classification – no more .tab file 😉 I love anything which sounds like automation…
      #DAMVideo – video tapestry (rendering video into panorama image). a DAM video solution that renders a filmstrip-type view of each video.
      #OnTheEdge – Not 100% sure to understand this one, what others say: Responsive design quick editor.
      #ClickClickDone – Inline editing, adding components
      #SweetEmotion – Emotion Engine based on tweets which sorts commentary by negative and positive sentiment.
      #TweetBoost – analysis of “influencers” who are driving traffic to the sites by factors including retweets, clicks and conversions and paid views
      #CMOBFF – tools for CMOs

      If I had to choose, 2 out of those 10 sneaks really grab my curiosity : Automagic & BoomData, only because I can see a direct relation to my work and usage of Adobe Products. Let’s say 3 #QuickTrend, because it sounds promising even though I haven’t seen it in action.

    2. Session Takeaways

      3. Keynote Catch phrases

      The Summit was the occasion to clarify the “mutation” for Adobe digital marketing products into 5 core solutions (Adobe Analytics, Adobe Media Optimiser, Adobe Social, Adobe Experience Manager and Adobe Target).
      Adobe Analytics which is at the end my main concern, is split into 2 products Adobe Analytics Standard & Adobe Analytics Premium:

      Quote from Tim Wilson, the main difference between both version is that Premium users will have access to Insight while Standards users will not.

      I am not giving up on findings good stuff to share about the actual sessions which took place, however for now ressources are limited so stay tuned, as soon as I get access to some of those below, you will know. In the mean time, I shared some links about the SC advanced time-saving tips & have a look at the ressources below.

      Digital Analytics
      – Solving the attribution dilemma: Five keys to cross-channel ROI measurement
      – Site Catalyst advanced: The time-saving tips you’re not using (Ben Gaines)

      – New innovations for Mobile with the Adobe Marketing Cloud
      – Predictive Marketing: Unearthing hidden behaviors and data patterns

      Targeting & Optimization
      – Adobe Test&Target: Essentials for building relevant, high-converting entry page experiences
      – Adobe Test&Target: Closing the loop: A personalization blueprint for B2B & lead-gen marketers
      – Adobe Test&Target: 2013 Conversion ROI All-Stars: trues stories of optimization success.

    3. Great ressources:

      4. Blog Post suggestions to read:
      The best advice from Adobe Summit 2013 from Ashley Huffman @chicktech
      Adobe Gives Sneak Peek of Leading Edge Marketing Solutions
      Four Takeaways from Adobe’s “Summit” Digital Marketing Conference from Bryan Yeager
      Michelle Kiss & Tim Wilson – Official Summit Insiders

    If you liked this post, spread the love!

    AdobeSummit 2013, as you were there even though we are not :)

    AdobeSummit 2013, as you were there even though we are not :)

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    Despite not being there, I challenged myself to cover the event as much as I could. I’ll update this post daily with my findings, especially today and tomorrow which are the main seminars day (being in Hong-Kong, I have a bit of delay…).
    I’ll cover Digital Analytics and Targeting & Optimization which are my topics of interest and more than enough to cover ! By cover, I mean, I’ll gather all useful information we could gain from going to the summit: videos, whitepapers, case studies, killing sentences, what’s new, best practices… anything that could help a digital analyst real daily life.

    What’s all the noise about?

    1. Adobe Summit: Facts & Data first:

      2. Just looking at 2 hours on Twitter…

      but I could also be looking at Google Alerts, Facebook, Blogger… and I will.

    2. Adobe Summit: General Overview:

      3. What is the Adobe Summit ?
      The Adobe Summit is a digital marketing event hosted by Adobe in Salt Lake City and London every year. It’s a 2 day session with a lot of digital marketing oriented conferences, I guess that if you are not always researching on last trends, news… it may be a good though expensive way to stay tuned with a lot of digital stuff in one go. Give you enough food for thoughts for a year.


      I do really hope that I never speak like that…

    3. Adobe Summit: What will I be covering?

      4. Well, I picked my topic for sure, here are the conferences, I’ll virtually sneak into :
      Digital Analytics
      – Solving the attribution dilemma: Five keys to cross-channel ROI measurement
      – Site Catalyst advanced: The time-saving tips you’re not using
      – New innovations for Mobile with the Adobe Marketing Cloud
      – Predictive Marketing: Unearthing hidden behaviors and data patterns
      Targeting & Optimization
      – Adobe Test&Target: Essentials for building relevant, high-converting entry page experiences
      – Adobe Test&Target: Closing the loop: A personalization blueprint for B2B & lead-gen marketers
      – Adobe Test&Target: 2013 Conversion ROI All-Stars: trues stories of optimization success.

      So please be my guest, stay tuned and I’ll share with you everything useful I’ll find from those conferences !

      #1 Update | Adobe Summit, who to follow on Twitter or who are the noisiest ?

      @rwang0
      @MicheleJKiss
      @epilkington
      @AdobeSummit
      @SocialJulio
      @kristaseiden
      @colltodd
      @thirsty_crow
      @BrentLeary

      The good news is most of them are analytics people or at least digital people, no click waisted!





    #2 Update | Adobe Summit, key takeaways are here!

    Successful Digital Analytics Project Workflow

    Successful Digital Analytics Project Workflow

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    How digital analytics people should get involved in a digital project ?

    For every analytics project, every new digital campaign, new launch,… I usually go through those steps or some of them without noticing anymore. Recently Adobe released a new whitepaper “How to create a data-driven dynasty“, amoung other stuff this document was aiming to provide digital analytics practitioners best practices for a successful digital analytics program management. I found this chart below very useful and a keeper.

    The chart “Analytics project workflow [copyright Adobe]” below is illustrating a successful workflow to an analytics project – assuming that every digital project is a also a analytics project :

    From an agency perspective and from a client perspective as well, this digital analytics project workflow seems pretty ideal to make sure that analytics is always part of the equation and avoid the common pitfall where is analytics is involved after the launch – and most of the time it’s too late to get things right and meet the business owner expectations:

    1. Plan

      2. This step covers a critical processus when the business owner meet the analytics team to explain the campaign, launch… expectations from a business perspective. The analytics team will then translate the business requirements into a technical tagging guide for the IT team. This document will cover the basic tagging which are most of the time already implemented by default and especially the specific tagging related to the specific project mentionned (e.g. a microsite launch which main goal is its social interest to users: the main traffic metrics will be measured as well as the volume of login through social channels, the volume of shares…).

    2. Implement

      3. As simply as the title is saying, this step covers when the IT Team get clearly involved and implement the tagging. Depending on your ressources, the IT team maybe trained to the analytics tool you are using or not, as long as the analytics team is sensible to that, the implementation will go smoothly.

    3. Validate

      4. As for for every technical implementation, this part covers the testing on an testing environment before going LIVE. I’ll usually use tool such as httpfox and look at QueryString details to make sure that every thing is running smoothly, that the tags are fired when they should be, that the pageName is correct… this works with Google Analytis & Adobe SiteCatalyst.

    4. Launch

    5. Review

      6. Lastly, after reviewing the implementation live, making sure that you are capturing every data points that you need according to the business requirements, will come the time for reporting, analysis and possibly enhancements.
      This part is at last the one the business owner is awaiting for, it will allow him to know if and in which extend his campaign, launch… is successful, which channel driver is performing better, what actions are the users performing, what kind of improvements could be done… The analytics team will be the guarantee of data-driven decisions making.

    What about you, does this analytics workflow sound good to you ? what kind of issues are you confronted in this process?

    As usual thanks for reading me so far, if you liked this post, please spread the love…