I found this post wondering if web analytics is hard or not (I typed in web analytics + hard or something) or well mostly wondering what other people would say about it.

But I always had a thought in mind:

If web analytics is so easy then why does it seem to be so hard to find good web analysts? I have Avinash’s book (and am a regular reader of his blog) and I know he is of the opinion that it’s not easy to find good web analysts (he blogged about it and has a chapter on this in his book), so I’m actually surprised to read that Avinash is spreading the message of web analytics being so easy (I’m not very immersed in this industry, yet).

I know he’s trying to break it down and explain web analytics in a way that anyone can understand it (I think he blogged about this being one of the reasons why he thinks his blog has become successful), so I would have thought he’s doing this in order to spread the use of web analytics (”if you make something easy to spread it spreads further” is a well known concept in SEO and word-of-mouth marketing (if you say web analytics is incredibly hard chances are fewer people will give it a try and it won’t spread far).

But I do see your point about this setting too high expectations which then would be bad for the industry, of course.

If you ever talk about this with Avinash in person, please ask him why he thinks it’s so hard to find talented analysts if web analytics is so easy :-)

I had a bit of trouble understanding your point (because Matt Belkin actually disagreed with your notion of web analytics being hard), but then I read the comment again and (hopefully?;)) understood you were being a bit sarcastic before continuing with ‘Seriously,…’ hehe.

You make a good point, but see my comment above. I sincerely doubt that telling people the truth about web analytics and clearly setting expectations will make people “abandon ship”.

“Web analytics is hard” sets expectations, not requirements. “Web analytics is hard” clarifies for your sales person that you might need more than a few minutes to satisfy his request. “Web analytics is hard” reminds us that this all pretty much new and we have to stay on our toes.

I know people want both Avi and I to be right and that’s okay. I respect his right to have a different opinion, even if I think he’s wrong. Hopefully he extends me the same consideration.

Thanks for your comment!

http://blogs.omniture.com/2008/04/03/don%e2%80%99t-do-this-7-pitfalls-when-deploying-analytics-part-ii/

Seriously, I don’t know why people like Avi, Matt, and Stehpane Hamel struggle with this truism. It’s not like web analytics being hard will stop companies from investing in their products and services any more than SEO being hard will stop folks from trying to game Google.

Thanks for your thoughtful comment.

this debate reminds me sooo much of the ‘SEO isn’t rocket science’ debate :-).

I think there are two types of careers (and of course many shades in between):

1) it’s very very hard to learn the knowledge you need, but once you’ve done that you’ll probably be successful (e.g. earn a lot of money) getting the knowledge of somebody with a PhD in physics or mathematics.

Very, very difficult to acquire that type of skill. This is ‘hard’ and ‘complex’.

2) it’s not overly hard to learn the knowledge as long as you have enough time…for example marketing: it doesn’t take a genius to ‘learn’ marketing knowledge.

But what is hard is applying that skill very successfully.

Another example for this could be running track: It’s not hard to run 100m (it’s neither ‘hard’ nor is it ‘complex’ for the average human being to acquire the skill of ‘running’) - but it sure is hard to become really good at it (achieve a sub-10 time).

I think we should talk about whether the knowledge you need for a skill (like web analytics) is ‘hard to acquire’. Becoming really good at it sure is hard (even with something as simple as running).

Whenever I hear somebody bash a field because it is ‘easy’ - for example ‘SEO is easy’, ‘SEO isn’t rocket science’ (I know Avinash is NOT trying to bash the field of web analytics :-)), I find that funny, because often it’s true that learning the skill is ‘easy’ (or at least not ‘rocket science’), but becoming very good (or even great) at it is almost never easy for most people (after all becoming great at it usually means becoming better than the majority of people).

Sorry for taking so long to reply - I just noticed your reply now.

From my acquaintance with Avinash and having reviewed Stephane’s recent podcast, I think it is safe to say that they too take a holistic approach to our world.

The more I think about it the more convinced I am that both statements are true.

You are spot on about setting expectations too high. Managers, unaware of difficulties of the day-to-day WA process, get nice graphs and think - “That’s great, now I want to know how this impacts XYX”. When they’re made to realised that it isn’t that easy they can easily get frustrated with WA.

How many times have we all been in this situation before?

But equally, if online marketers and aspiring web analysts are confronted with the difficulties of WA upfront than the risk is they will abandon ship before it even sails.
There main two concerns would probably be:

1. Lack of confidence to read the data and make some basic conclusions
2. Concerns over presenting the data to management and having to field subsequent questions

Therefore, I think both of you are playing an extremely important balancing role in our world. Avinash is making more people use, practice and trust WA whilst you are making sure that they don’t get disillusioned too quickly and are made aware that there are no silver bullet solutions (only this week I’ve been asked by a salesperson to get me XYZ data for a site I’ve never analysed before and am unfamiliar with the Omniture implementation on it – he just thought it is a simple exercise to get the data out of the box).

Hope this makes sense.

Keep on the debate - it is very healthy. It makes us all think harder.

Thanks,
Michael

No doubt there are aspects of our practice that are easy! Google Analytics makes it a no-brainer to determine the bounce rates for our pages, etc. which is nice. But what do you do with that information? Do you just go back to someone in your organization and say “our bounce rate sucks, fix it!” and see results?

It’s not that easy, and we all know it.

I very much agree with your assertion that things will get easier over time — inevitably companies will come around to the central principles of RAMP and other measurement best practices — but we are not there yet. Because of this, I see Kaushik and Hamel’s messaging as dangerous if not necessarily incorrect. It sets the wrong expectation for NOW, not the future, and in my personal and direct experience leads to confusion and ultimately disappointment.

But anyway, I get your point and thanks a ton for your comment. Some people haven’t been able to take a step back and think objectively about this issue (perhaps myself included!) and your point does that.