Many of you have probably already seen the invitation given that I emailed it to well over 10,000 people around the world but just in case … a former JupiterResearch data analyst and I are currently conducting a survey covering web analytics. The survey is totally anonymous and we’re asking what we believe to be a series of valuable questions regarding both personal attitudes and organizational uses of web analytics.

The response so far has been phenomenal and we’re closing in on 600 responses but my goal is 1,000 responses (which my partner laughed at since nobody, nobody gets a 10% response rate. I told her that web analytics people were different and they understood the value of collecting good attitudinal data …)

If you haven’t yet completed the survey, you can participate via this URL:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=353583551869

To thank you for the small amount of time it will take you to complete the survey I’m offering two incentives:

1. A free copy of the aggregated survey results, including analysis, available through my web site in mid-May
2. A 25 percent discount off of the purchase price of Web Analytics Demystified and The Big Book of Key Performance Indicators.

Again, the URL you need to participate in this survey is:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=353583551869

If you have any questions about the survey I welcome them here in comments or via email if you’d like to be more discreet.  There is more information about the survey on my web site.

Eric Enge has a great interview with one of my good friends Bryan Eisenberg.  Eric is a great interviewer and Bryan is a great subject.  Makes for good reading.  Check it out!

I got such good feedback after interviewing my friend June Dershewitz back in February I’ve decided to keep talking to some of the bright people I know who are actively looking for work in the web analytics industry. Recently I had the chance to interview my friend Jaimie Scott, formerly of Intel and one of the original Web Analytics Wednesday participants here in Portland, Oregon.

Jaimie has always struck me as someone who has really figured out the whole “work/life balance” thing that so many of us talk about but so few of us seem to pull off. Since Jaimie doesn’t have kids, I find myself often living vicariously through Jaimie as he describes hikes and trips he takes around the state and in the Northwest. That’s not to say that he’s not into web analytics … he definitely is.

My interview with Jaimie is as follows:

Eric T. Peterson: Jaimie, thanks for joining me this evening. First question: Tell me a little bit about your experience with web analytics systems?

Jaimie Scott: I’ve been doing analytics for two years, mostly on the Omniture platform.

Much of that experience has centered around establishing KPIs and fixing the implementations to collect the right data.

The emphasis has been primarily on optimizing the site design and marketing efforts for each company.

Eric T. Peterson: Very cool.

Do you mind saying where you worked? Since you’re here in Portland, I know your employer is pretty well known locally …

Jaimie Scott: No, I don’t mind. I worked at Intel for 12 years, doing web analytics for the last 18 months, and then at Powell’s Books after that.

Eric T. Peterson: At Intel, how did you get introduced to web analytics?

Jaimie Scott: Well, that’s long story, but I’ll try to keep it brief.

In my 12 years there I made five career changes, which is pretty common at Intel.

Each time I changed careers I figured out a little more about the types of things I enjoyed doing.

All of the positions I held had a few things in common including data analysis, translating between technical and non-technical folks, and communication.

When my next to the last position went away, I came across the analytics position and it sounded intriguing to me.

So I applied and got the job and that was how I got my start in web analytics.

Eric T. Peterson: I’ve found, in my research, that the ability to translate technical findings for non-technical people is critical. Can you describe briefly one instance where you were really successful doing that? You don’t have to be too specific …

Jaimie Scott: At Intel I was tasked with creating a dashboard that would at a glance tell the managers that used the data what they needed to know.

Each manager that used the dashboard had their own requirements.

So I had to evaluate their individual business needs and the available data and then develop an Excel dashboard with logic and pivot tables to represent data in a way that would empower management to see enabling program performance by business group, functional team, field audience, and geography.

I accomplished this in a single dahboard that allowed each user to select their own pivot tables to view the data that was important to them and they were ecstatic with the result.

Eric T. Peterson: Very cool. So you are adept with Excel then I take it?

Jaimie Scott: I am.

Eric T. Peterson: Excellent! So tell me this, what do you like BEST about web analytics? What gets you up in the morning, as it were?

Jaimie Scott: I’d have to say it’s the challenge. I really enjoy trying to glean understanding of customer behavior, and the motivations for their behavior from pouring over the data.

Eric T. Peterson: What, would you say, is the hardest web analytics problem you’ve ever run up against?

Jaimie Scott: Well, I suppose that would be establishing KPIs for a non-retail site for which the website owners were not clear on what they hoped to accomplish with the site.

That makes things very difficult.

But I learned quite a few tricks in the last UBC course that should help me the next time I encounter that situation.

Eric T. Peterson: Hey, speaking of, you’re one of the first WAA UBC class graduates, right? What did you think of the courses?

Jaimie Scott: I am. I really enjoyed the courses and look forward to applying everything I learned.

I thought that the last course in particular, Creating and Managing The Analytics Businesss Culture did a great job of tying the material from the previous courses together and filling in the gaps.

I felt that the content in all of the courses was excellent. I’d strongly recommend the courses to anyone considering taking them.

Eric T. Peterson: Did you have a favorite instructor? (Note: I am not asking Jaimie to say “Eric Peterson” since I am not a teacher in the UBC classes …)

Jaimie Scott: Yeah, but I can’t remember his name. Better not include this.

Let’s just say they were all great.

Eric T. Peterson: Would you say you’re more technically minded or more business minded regarding web analytics? More of a coder or an analyst, or both?

Jaimie Scott: Well, I’m not sure how to answer that. I’d say I’m more technical than business oriented only because my math and engineering background is more technical.

I’m definitely more analytically inclined than a coder. I’ve written a fair amount of code in my day and let’s just say I’m glad I’m not a programmer by trade.

It’s kind of funny. I took one of those “social style” classes at Intel and I was told that I was an analytical-analytical by nature.

That means I am more detail-oriented and deliberate in my pace even than other analytical types, so I have to be careful in that regard.

Eric T. Peterson: Okay, last few questions:

You’re looking for a job doing web analytics, right? Describe your ideal job …

Jaimie Scott: Yes, I am. I really want to find a position that will give me the chance to apply what I’ve learned in my last two positions and the UBC courses. I’d say if I had my choice, I’d like to find a local company that would allow me to focus on an e-commerce site.

To really delve into the site and all of the available data sources and understand customer behavior.

Working with the marketing and design teams to optimize conversion on the site.

And since we are talking “ideal” I’d rather not travel more than a few days once or twice a month.

Eric T. Peterson: Great answer!

You mentioned the Omniture product, have you worked with any other web analytics platforms?

Jaimie Scott: Very little to date, although I just entered into a temporary collaboration today with a local company that will hopefully give me some more experience with Google Analytics on a retail site.

I’ve had some exposure to other platforms since I read a number of blogs and the Yahoo Newsgroup daily, but other than that I haven’t really worked on other platforms. Yet.

Eric T. Peterson: Good answer. Last question. If my readers or recruiters want to contact you, what is the best way to get in touch?

Jaimie Scott: jaimie.scott@gmail.com

Eric T. Peterson: Excellent!

Jaimie, thanks so much for talking to me this evening. I owe you a beer at the April Web Analytics Wednesday here in the Rose City … unless you find your next job because of this blog post, in which case you can buy the first round …

Jaimie Scott: Yeah! Thanks Eric!

If you’re like Jaimie and looking for a new job in web analytics, you should check out my premium job board where there are always great jobs listed.

If so, your dream job just happens to be posted on my premium job board!  The posting is calling for a “Director Web Analytics” but after talking to the VP of Global Marketing and Director of Web Marketing at this unnamed company I can tell you that this job is a whole lot more than that.  Just have a look at the RELEVANT EXPERIENCE section of the posting and you’ll see what I mean … to get this job you’ll need to have a ton of experience, but man oh man, the things you’re going to get to do!

I can’t name the company but I was really impressed with their attitude towards online marketing: They focus on web marketing FIRST and back up to offline marketing secondarily.  The successful candidate will play a huge role in how the company spends money and this role will have direct access to the CEO.  This is a high-profile position to be sure.

When I asked about how they’re already set up for web analytics I was surprised by what I heard.  This company is absolutely doing it right in the B2B space — they have their analytics integrated with their marketing automation system and SalesForce.com such that they’re able to generate a weekly dashboard reporting against the on-site activity of a group of “watch list” companies.  Their sales staff rely on these dashboards to make key decisions about prospect status and complex RFP processes.  This process alone has helped the company generate a nine-figure sales funnel, which has in turn ensured that when the VP of Global Marketing goes asking for money for projects, he never hears the word “no.”

This company is doing predictive marketing based on their web analytics data.  How often do you hear that?
When I commented that they sound like they’ve got everything pretty much dialed-in and asked what the new hire will be responsible for, they indicated that it’s all about “Web 2.0″ at this point.  They need a forward-thinking strategic player who can help them bring emerging Internet technology into the B2B marketplace.  It took their competition three years to catch on to their investment in PPC marketing, and now they want to create a similar gap based on podcasts, vidcasts, mobile marketing, RSS, etc.
The candidate who gets the job will manage a big outside design and development agency, the company that manages their SEO/SEM strategy, an internal web analyst and will support marketing around the world.  The job is in Baltimore, MD and they are willing to relocate the right person.

Check out this position and apply today.

A bunch of you read and commented about my post from February titled “Afraid of page views dying? Don’t be!” in which I proposed that we use “visits” or “sessions” instead of “page views” or “unique visitors” (sic) to compare traffic across different sites. It appears perhaps that someone at comScore was paying attention as well.  According to their press release:

“As technologies like AJAX change the Internet landscape, certain measures of engagement, such as page views, are diminishing in significance for many Web properties,” said Jack Flanagan, executive vice president of comScore Media Metrix. “The introduction of these new metrics based on ‘visits’ provides an alternative for measuring user engagement that tells us how frequently visitors are actually returning to the site to view more content.”

I don’t necessarily agree that visits tells us that much about visitor engagement but I do agree with comScores reasoning behind using visits.  I actually suggested something like this to comScore’s Andrew Lippsman on February 15th, 2007 when I wrote him:

“What prevents you guys from reporting on SESSIONS rather than page views or unique visitors?  Anything?”

Far be it from me to assume that my email had anything to do with comScores decision to roll sessions into their reporting … let’s just assume that great minds think alike!

So here is a test of the value of comScore’s decision: For all the site operators in the world who have ever complained about the differences between comScore’s unique visitor counts relative to their own web analytics tracking, compare your session (= visits) counts to what comScore reports.  Because, as I said back in February, sessions is a much more clearly defined and less controversial metric, my suspicion is that you’ll see much greater alignment between the two systems than you were seeing based on UVs.

I would LOVE to get comments or email from anyone using both systems (comScore and traditional web analytics) to see what correlation (or lack thereof) you see.  If I’m right (not saying I am), even without bugging Andrew and Gian Fulgoni about the specifics behind their “visit” counting, I bet we’re going to see far less variation when comparing visits between these technologies, thusly reinforcing the idea that sessions (= visits) IS the right metric.

Either way, thanks to comScore for being open minded enough to revisit the numbers they report to tell a more complete story to their customers and the rest of us too cheap to pony up for their reports but are still paying attention.

(Thanks to Marshall for catching the comScore press release, by the way …)