Archive for 'Web Analytics People'

On Tuesday at the Emetrics Summit the Web Analytics Association membership awarded Web Analytics Demystified a 2012 Award for Excellence and dubbed us the “Most Influential Agency” in the digital measurement sector. We are incredibly honored by the award but there are a few folks I forgot to thank at the event that Adam, Brian, John, and I wanted to recognize:

• Our wives and families, without whom we would not be able to do the work we do
• Our clients, whose continued support keeps us participating in some amazing analytics around the world
• Our partners, including Keystone Solutions, IQ Workforce, and eClerx, whose own leadership makes our work better
• Our sponsors for Web Analytics Wednesday, Analysis Exchange, and ACCELERATE allow us to expand our footprint
• Our friends throughout the digital measurement, analysis, and optimization community around the world, especially April Wilson who wrote a really nice nomination letter for us

While Web Analytics Demystified can be a facilitator and catalyst for great events, experiences, and engagements, we are only successful because we get such incredible help and support from the community. From each of us to all of you, thank you!

Much to my chagrin, having been outed by the local newspaper for my original dismissal of Google+, it appears that the web analytics community is prepared to go “all in” in the social network. What’s more, because we’re no longer bound by 100-odd characters (after we @respond and #measure tag), suddenly some incredibly bright minds are able to rapidly contribute to an emerging meme.

Interested? I knew you would be.

Head on over to my stream at Google+ and catch up on the conversation stemming from Tim Wilson’s recent critique of Adobe SiteCatalyst 15. Certainly the thread has diverged somewhat but if you’re in web analytics and on Google+ we would all welcome your contribution.

>>> Web Analytics Platforms are Fundamentally Broken

If you’re not on Google+ click on this link as I have bunches of invites I can share.

I suspect by now many of you have noticed but this week we made two pretty amazing announcements here at Web Analytics Demystified. Now that the dust is settling I have some time to take a step back and offer up some comments on the announcements and what I believe they mean for our clients, our prospects, and the web analytics industry in general.

On Tuesday we announced that respected industry veteran Adam Greco had joined John and I as a Senior Partner. Adam is well-known to many in our community thanks to his high-visibility work during his tenure at Omniture, his popular “Omni-Man” blog, and his fine, fine work on the Beyond Web Analytics podcast series.

For John and I bringing Adam on board was a no-brainer. The guy is as bright as they come, he is articulate, and most importantly he knows how to squeeze every last drop of value out of the most widely deployed digital measurement solutions in use today — Adobe SiteCatayst and Google Analytics. Adam is committed to extending that expertise to all of the popular platforms as quickly as possible, and our hope is that by mid-year he will be providing the same great insights he has for SiteCatalyst to Webtrends, Unica, Coremetrics, Nedstat, and other customers.

Adam will be running our Operational Use Audit and Framework Development practice as well as providing custom training and generally supporting the rest of the Demystified service offerings.  Which brings me to our second announcement …

On Wednesday we announced an exclusive partnership with tactical and technical consulting practice leaders Keystone Solutions. Keystone is a slightly better-kept secret than Adam Greco, although their current clients certainly know who they are. Founded years ago by former Omniture super-star Matthew Gellis, Keystone has grown into a talent magnet comprable to, well, Web Analytics Demystified.  Matt Wright from HP, Kurt Slater from Expedia, Rudi Schumpert from Ariba, and a host of other amazing analytics technicians.

We have doubled-down with Keystone for one simple reason: in our experience they are the best of the best when it comes to providing fundamental and foundational support for any digital measurement practice. Especially against those same two “most popular” solutions — Google Analytics and Adobe SiteCatalyst — Keystone delivers in a way that few others out there are capable, and that is the kind of talent we prefer to work with in the field.

Through this partnership Web Analytics Demystified clients will be able to benefit from a dramatically expanded set of web analytics consulting service offerings ranging from on-the-ground implementation support to ongoing reporting and analysis to some pretty amazing custom solutions. They will also be taking the lead on our Tag Management Systems Audit and Deployment practice, an offering I expect to be red-hot in 2011 and beyond.

Now, unfortunate as it is, we were not able to pursue this type of relationship with Keystone without some cost. The immediate fall-out is that Web Analytics Demystified will no longer be participating in the X Change conference. While this breaks my heart after having put three years of sweat equity into the event, relationships change and so it is time to move on.

I do, however, promise every one of the hundreds of consultants, vendors, and practitioners we have personally invited to this conference over the past three years that we will be back, live and in-person, with something far more “Demystified” in nature. Based on our work with Web Analytics Wednesday, the Analysis Exchange, and hundreds of other events around the globe, we have a pretty good idea of what is truly missing from the web analytics event landscape … and now, thanks to Adam and the team at Keystone, we have the means to deliver.

I welcome your comments and questions about both pieces of news, and I hope you’ll keep your eyes open in the coming few weeks for even more news from our growing company. It is exciting times, indeed.

Happy New Years my readers! I hope the recent holidays treated you well regardless of your faith, persuasion, or geographic location. I wanted to take a quick break from all the heavy privacy chatter these past few months and tell a little story about the generosity of our community and one individual in particular.

If you follow me on Twitter you may have noticed me cryptically tweeting “it’s not about you, it’s about the community” from time to time. I started sending this update as a subtle hint to a few folks who harp on and on about their accomplishments, products, and “research” in the Twitter #measure community … but sadly those folks never got the hint (so much for being subtle, huh?)

Over time the tweet became something larger — it became a reminder about what we all are capable of when we think about more than our own little world.  ”It’s not about you, it’s about the community” is about some of the greatest contributors in the history of web analytics, people like:

• Jim Sterne, who years ago realized that we needed a place to gather, and who wisely picked the Four Seasons Biltmore in Santa Barbara, California.  While Emetrics may have become a profit-generating machine, those of you who know Jim and know history understand that the conference is as much about and for the community as it is anything else;
• Jim Sterne, Bryan Eisenberg, Rand Schulman, Greg Drew, Seth Romanow, and others who founded the Web Analytics Association years ago when it was clear that we needed some type of organizing body, committing themselves to hundreds of hours of work without thinking about how they would make money off of the effort;
• Jim Sterne (again!!!!) who has been making sure that we all know who is doing what where and when via his “Sterne Measures” email newsletter for as long as I can remember;
• Avinash Kaushik, Google’s famed Analytics Evangelist, who has long committed the profits from his books on web analytics to two amazing charities;
• Super-contributors to the Web Analytics Forum at Yahoo Groups, folks like Kevin Rogers, Yu Hui, Jay Tkachuk, and dozen more who still take the time to answer questions from newer members of this rapidly expanding community;
• Past and current Web Analytics Association Board members and super-volunteers, folks like Alex Yoder, Jim Novo, Raquel Collins, Jim Humphries, and so many more who give their time and energy every month to make sure the Association continues to evolve and grow;
• Activists and evangelists like my partner John Lovett, who in the midst of writing his first book on social media analytics has taken the time to shepherd our Web Analysts Code of Ethics effort through the Web Analytics Association Board of Directors;
• Everyone who has ever hosted a Web Analytics Wednesday event, including luminaries like Judah Phillips, June Dershewitz, Tim Wilson, Bob Mitchell, Emer Kirrane, Perti Mertanen, Alex Langshur, Anil Batra, Ruy Carneiro, Dash Lavine, Jenny Du, David Rogers, and way too many more folks to list who contribute their valuable time to help grow organic web analytics communities locally;
• All of the over 1,000 members of the Analysis Exchange, many of whom have contributed to multiple projects to make sure that nonprofit organizations around the world have access to web analytics insights;
• Dozens of others I am forgetting, and probably hundreds more I have never even met …

When I think about this list of people and their individual contributions to the web analytics community it is almost overwhelming — how lucky we are to have such considerate and giving friends!  Still, people have been giving back for years and so it is rare that I see something or someone in the community that really blows me away …

Until recently.

Not everyone knows Jason Thompson, and I suspect he would be the first to admit that not everyone who knows him actually likes him, but if I had to pick one “web analytics super-hero” for 2010 Jason would be my hand’s-down, number one choice.  See, Jason was smart enough to not just get the web analytics community to give back to our community, he managed to get our community to help provide clean water to an entire community in a developing nation.

Having worked repeatedly as a volunteer with Analysis Exchange Jason was introduced to charity:water, a nonprofit organization who’s vision is very simple: to provide clean, safe drinking water for everyone on the planet.

Water.

Not a great blog or free books, not data or solution profilers, but water that mothers can bring to their children. Clean, pure water that I would venture each and every one of the members of the web analytics community takes for granted and rarely even considers the source and its availability.

But Jason thought about it, and what’s more, Jason did something about it. Thanks to some cool new technology Jason was able to donate his 36th birthday to help raise $500. By leveraging Twitter and his web analytics community he was able to raise that $500 by December 18th.  Having met his goal before his birthday Jason didn’t stop and settle, he set the bar higher, working first to raise $1,000, then $3,000, and finally $5,000, enough to provide water for an entire village – 80 people for 20 years.

Jason’s effort brought out the best in our community again, collecting donations from luminaries and lay-users alike … hell, he even got money from his mom! Some of the biggest names in web analytics helped Jason along, and donations large and small rolled in right up until Ensighten’s Josh Manion put in the last $300 on Jason’s birthday, putting him over the top and completing his final goal.

Honestly I don’t know Jason very well, but I do know passion and greatness when I see it. Jason once again served as a reminder that “it’s not about you, it’s about the community” and he did more than just tweet obnoxiously … he put his time and money where his mouth is and did something real.

Bravo, Mr. Thompson.  Bravo.

If you don’t know Jason I highly recommend following him in Twitter (@usujason, if you’re into Twitter) and, if you see him at a conference or event do like I will and buy the man a drink. I for one am going to let Jason be an example of how I can work even harder to make a difference both inside and outside of the web analytics community in 2011 and beyond.

Hopefully some of you will do the same.

Just in case you hadn’t seen this already I wanted to call your attention to the updated (version 2) “Web Analysts Code of Ethics” over at the Web Analytics Association blog. John Lovett and the members of the Standards Subcommittee did a wonderful job condensing my original work down into a more easily digested document.

The committee is still looking for comments on this version so please, please head over, read the update, and let us know what you think.

Thanks to John and the WAA for making this happen for all of us!