Archive for 'X Change'

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.

What a crazy week it has been, what with client visits with John here in the West, web casts with the fine folks at Tealeaf and Unica, and the end of summer fast approaching at the Peterson household. I was so busy I wasn’t able to pay close attention to our X Change registrations and when I looked just now I realized something …

X Change 2010 is damn near sold out.

Thanks to some quick thinking from Joel, Grace, and Gary over at Semphonic we have a few more seats available than last year, but with nearly a month to go before we convene in Monterey, California at the beautiful Monterey Plaza Resort and Spa we have sold more seats than last year and last year was completely sold out!

You’re not gonna miss the X Change because you waited too long to sign up, are you? You aren’t going to risk missing out on the chance to discuss digital measurement in our intense and intimate conversation format with practice leaders and managers from amazing brands like Best Buy, ESPN, Expedia, Facebook, MTV, New York Times, Lowes, Turner Broadcasting, HP, Salesforce.com, Nike, Charles Schwab, Comcast, eBay, and NBC Universal, are you?

Seriously, don’t miss out.

I only wish I could make a list of all the great participant companies coming to this year’s event … but I can’t.  If I could you would see that by coming to this year’s X Change you would be joining some of the most respected brands in technology, media, healthcare, advertising, software, and retail in the world.  Worse, you would realize that missing X Change means not getting to hear first-hand how some of the greatest minds in the digital measurement industry are getting it done today.

You would be bummed.

Don’t be bummed, come to X Change 2010, September 20, 21, and 22 in Monterey, California. Register at our web site now or contact me directly for more information.

Earlier this year after we launched the Analysis Exchange we put out our first challenge to the membership. We asked people to “be exceptional” in their participation, to step up and make a difference by working harder than expected, by bringing crazy passion to their work, and by participating in unexpected ways.  In exchange for “being exceptional” we said we would provide a complimentary pass to one mentor and one student to this year’s X Change conference in Monterey, California September 20, 21, and 22.

Today I am pleased to announce your exceptional winners of this challenge.

While nearly everyone who has participated in Analysis Exchange thus far has really blown my mind with their energy, their commitment, and their willingness to do something special for the larger web analytics and nonprofit communities, five people really stood out in the crowd.

• Sarah DeAtley, Mentor from Washington who worked like crazy to sign up her fellow Seattle-ites and continues to evangelize for the effort;
• Victor Acquah, Mentor from Virginia who participated in both our Alpha and Beta tests with PBS and provided tremendously valuable feedback;
• Jason Thompson, Mentor from Utah who has stepped up repeatedly to mentor projects and has helped a great deal to spread the word;
• Jan Alden Cornish, Student from California who has not only participated in multiple projects but has been an invaluable source of ideas and feedback;
• Michael Healy, Student from California who has helped out on numerous projects and who really understands what Analysis Exchange is trying to do.

Unfortunately not everyone would have been able to make the X Change this year due to previous commitments; fortunately that made our job selecting the finalists nominally easier.  To make our final decision we asked everyone to send us a short paragraph describing “what they have learned” in Analysis Exchange to date.  Here is what we heard back:

From Jason Thompson:

“First let me say, that with the amazing cast of students and mentors
that make up the Analysis Exchange, I am truly humbled to be
considered for this honor.

The Analysis Exchange has reminded me that what makes us truly rich is
not the contents of our wallets or how much money we have in our bank
accounts, whoa….sorry…started channeling Tyler Durden there for a
second, but what makes us truly rich are the relationships we have in
life.

So what have I learned thus far?  I have learned that we are all
students and that if we are open, there are many great lessons for us
to be taught.

I didn’t join the AE with the thought of getting anything in return,
although I have been given many wonderful gifts through my
participation. I joined because the AE provided me with the
opportunity to give back to an industry that has given me so much.

I honestly feel a little bit weird writing this email and the humble
Jason in me says this opportunity should go the person who would
benefit from it the most.”

From Jan Alden Cornish:

“My two Analysis Exchange student projects have demonstrated several key takeaways. First, project management principles are paramount. The project kick-of meeting should reinforce the Analysis Exchange project priorities:

• Schedule: short-term project
• Cost : limited resource availability, with the expectation that the student have the most flexibility
• Scope:  the project deliverables given the constraints

The project kick-off meeting should confirm the core roles and responsibilities of the project team members.

• Organizational Lead: the key business stakeholder who approves the project scope and project deliverables. The organizational lead may be the project manager
• Mentor : the web analysis expert / consultant. The mentor may be the project manager.
• Student: the primary execution resource

The project team has to rapidly converge on meeting times for reviewing and also for approving deliverables. The team needs to determine web / audio conferencing details: Skype, GoToMeeting, etc.

The first milestone is approving the project charter, which provides the scope definition and defines the team members’ roles and responsibilities.  Scope definition may require more than one meeting, particularly if the business plan of the nonprofit organization does not clearly set forth measurable expectations for their web presence.  For example, the organizational lead may be accountable for other time critical projects (i.e. migration to a new content management system). The Analysis Exchange project may run concurrently with other projects within the organization that impact its web presence (i.e, an outsourced web redesign).

A second key takeaway for me was that the nonprofit  world is a microcosm of the real world. Thus, risk management is key. A risk is a potential issue which might adversely impact the success of the project. Risks may be categorized as technical or organizational. The web implementation may not allow certain analysis questions to be answered.  Nonprofits often leverage third-party platforms for key business functions such as e-newsletter management, volunteer recruitment, and e-commerce. These functions might not be tightly integrated from an analytics reporting standpoint. They may “roll up” to other departments in the nonprofit’s organization. The nonprofit ‘s web implementation also may have a limited deployment of Google Analytics. Other web analysis tools that are deployed may not may not offer similar functionality to Google Analytics.

Armed with these takeaways from my first two Analysis Exchange projects I look eagerly forward to my next project.”

And from Michael Healy:

“Superhuman effort isn’t worth a damn unless it achieves results. – E. Shackleton

In my experience thus far with the Analysis Exchange I learned that the bounce rate, page views, time on page and every other web metric pretty much aren’t worth anything. More accurately, they aren’t worth anything to the client unless they start to solve a business problem.

Considering that the organizations in the Analysis Exchange aren’t selling anything per se, but instead are providing a non-profit service to others presented a few challenges. Working with Gordon Holstlander, of the Circle Drive Alliance Church of Saskatoon, and Michael Helbling, my excellent mentor, I learned how to work together as a team to move beyond the prima facie challenge.

Our project involved what appeared to be a simple analysis of the home page real estate to determine the best usage of the page. I built out several personas of usage for the CDAC website which showed dynamic access to information; with different goals at different times of the day, week and year. Answering ‘it depends’ to Gordon’s original question delighted my Econ brain to no end.

Moving beyond the population of people who already accessed the site, I was able to show Gordon how to do a simple Google Trends search for the Saskatoon area. An examination of the entire CDAC website also revealed a great source of underutilized content. These two were passed onto the client for future SEO usage.

The biggest lesson in the Analysis Exchange thus far has been the open dialog and client relationships developed. Websites can be very personal things, with people at non-profits often pouring countless hours into improving them.Michael facilitated an exchange of ideas with Gordon and me; such that when I made my presentation all parties were open to improvements. That is a lesson I will lean on for the rest of my career.”

As you can see we are honored to have members who are so thoughtful, intelligent, and especially in Jan’s case, precise! In the end the decision was nearly impossible to make … until Michael Healy mentioned that he would be coming to the X Change regardless of the outcome.  To smooth that path we are sending Michael our “maximum discount” code for the conference and will ensure that he drinks his fill at the bar each evening.

Which leaves us with Jason Thompson and Jan Alden Cornish, this year’s Analysis Exchange at the X Change contest winners!

Jason and Jan will be coming to the X Change compliments of Web Analytics Demystified and Semphonic, co-hosts for the conference. I hope you will all join us in comments congratulating Jason, Jan, and all of our distinguished members! And if you are lucky enough to be joining us at this year’s X Change conference make sure to find Jason and Jan and congratulate them in person, shake their hands, and ask them about their experience in this effort.

The Analysis Exchange is always looking for more volunteer students, mentors, and nonprofit organizations. The X Change conference will be held September 20, 21, and 22 at the beautiful Monterey Plaza Hotel and Spa in Monterey, California.

I’m excited to announce that most of the 2010 X Change huddle topics and leaders have now been announced on our web site. If you’ve heard about the X Change and have been wondering what we will be talking about, please go have a look at the 2010 topics! We are more or less talking about everything … mobile, social, tagging, analysis, big data, testing, … you name it and we will be talking about it in Monterey September 21st and 22nd.

Serious. We have Kim Weller from ESPN talking about Digital Convergence, Kelly Olin from Nike talking about Measuring Global Brands, Dylan Lewis from Intuit talking about Testing, Lynn Lanphier from Best Buy talking about Analytics for Retailers, and 16 more amazing minds talking about the pressing topics of our day.

Are you ready to join us yet?

Just in case you’re not, please take a look at some of the amazing practitioners we have leading this year’s conversations. I consider it an honor to be co-producing a conference with so many brilliant web analytics practice leaders coming to join us and make the event happen. Folks like Shari Cleary from MTV Networks, Blandon Casanave from NBC Universal, Bob Page from eBay, and Adam Greco (yes, THAT Adam Greco) from Salesforce.com!

I know, amazing!

We will be adding a few more topics and conversation leaders this week so bookmark those pages and keep checking in. And by all means, if you have any questions about whether X Change is right for you, what the event is like, and what you can expect to take back to your boss after the conference, please don’t hesitate to contact me or one of my partners.

Don’t forget to read about this year’s exciting keynote with our “three VPs” as well. Shari, Joe Megibow from Expedia.com, and Steve Bernstein from Paypal will be talking about the career path from analyst to Vice President and the types of challenges they face heading analytics organizations as part of their companies senior leadership teams.

We are waaaay ahead on registrations this year compared to previous years and so a sell-out is more or less assured at this point. Don’t get left out — register right away and ensure your seat at the table at X Change 2010!

Now that Emetrics West is behind us, and what an Emetrics it was this year, Web Analytics Demystified and Semphonic officially start to ramp up our efforts to get the best of the best of you to join us for three days in Monterey September 20, 21, and 22. While I am excited about the entire event, I am particularly excited about our keynote offering this year titled “A Conversation with Management.”

Because the X Change draws so many expert practitioners, managers, and directors of web analytics my general feeling has always been that we should be programming for “lifers” in the field, looking for opportunities to help participants expand their career horizons. Our “Conversation with Management” keynote is a conversation with three of the most successful web analytics professionals I personally know:

• Shari Cleary, Vice President of Digital Research at MTV Networks
• Joe Megibow, Vice President of Global Analytics at Expedia.com
• Steve Bernstein, Vice President of Analytics at Myspace

I have personally known Shari, Joe, and Steve for years and have had the great honor of watching each progress up the management chain, taking an increasing amount of responsibility with each step. Now all three of our keynote participants represent web analytics at the highest levels within each of their organizations, an incredible feat when you consider the footprint MTV, Expedia, and Myspace have on the Internet.

During our keynote I will be leading the panel to explore common “lifer” challenges including staffing, vendor management, the balance between reporting and analysis, their relationship with senior-most management, and the importance of business process to each of their jobs. My goal will be to get each to share details regarding their own career path in hopes those insights will help X Change attendees accelerate their own goals.

You can learn more about the 2010 X Change on our micro-site for the conference:

• The 2010 X Change conference schedule
• Hotel information for the Monterey Plaza Resort and Spa
• Details about Web Analytics Demystified’s Think Tank offerings
• Our X Change Frequently Asked Questions document
• Registration for the 2010 X Change in Monterey, CA September 20, 21, and 22

If you have questions about the conference please don’t hesitate to give any of the Web Analytics Demystified partners a call or email. Remember that the conference is limited to the first 100 people who register and registration has already started.

See you at the X Change!