This week in DC, Carol Gohl, Dave Nelson and I co-presented the keynote in the third day of eMetrics. The title of the presentation is “From Good to Great, how online testing is evolving at Dell”. The audience thought the presentation is quite inspiring and refreshing. If you were not in eMetrics, but want to see what we talked about, here is the presentation.
I think the key message we are trying to deliver is that our industry is far from maturity and the only way to move forward is to take a balanced approach toward people, process & technology. Most of the companies are still trying to figure out what’s the technology platform they should be using for web analytics and testing. Luckily at Dell, we have solved that issue in the last three years, at least for the most parts. Our focus right now is how to get more values out of those investments and the answer is people & process. Without enough talents, it limits the potentials of the value you can extract from the technology. Without process, smart people can become frustrated. You might be able to have one or two big wins but it will collapse eventually when the lead person leaves.
My passion at Dell is really to help the company create a sustainable, scalable and consistent analytics & testing program. But I have come to realize this is not a one-person’s game. This is so much bigger than myself. The only way to do so is to hire people much smarter than me and create processes which can help them become successful. I really think for any analytics managers/executives, the number one priority should be people and the number two should be process. Technology is important, but don’t let it get in your way and stop you from developing a better team and better process.
One thing I mentioned in the conference is there is a shortage of great web analytics talents. Nothing new here as everybody knows that. What I didn’t mention is there is a bigger shortage of great web analytics managers/executives. I think there are two possibilities to fill in that gap in the future. The first possibility is for our web analysts to grow up and become leaders in their companies who can influence the overall marketing analytics strategy, not just web analytics in silo. Adam Greco is a great example who grew from a web analytics consultant to an analytics executive. However if our web analysts fail to make that jump, then managers/executives with no web analytics background but great background in other analytics disciplines such as finance, pricing etc. might come over to take the lead. I have seen this is happening especially in large enterprise.
Two years ago, I was the only one attending eMetrics. This year, we had total 8 Dell team members in DC, making Dell the company with the most attendees. It is a small change but a great testimony how much focus Dell has given to online analytics & optimization.
My close remarks of the keynote is I don’t know where the future is taking us. Nor I know how long it will take us to become the best-in-class analytics & testing company. But I do know that with the right vision and strategy, we will get closer to the end goal, slowly but surely. Of course there will be blood and tears along the way, but hey, isn’t that making the whole thing so exciting?
Ed,
Great post, and I’m super-bummed to have missed your and Carol’s presentation in D.C. as I have only heard great things about it. I wanted to offer one comment about “people being more important than process …”
You’re wrong.
Now, I know you’ll take this the right way since you know me, but I can absolutely assure you that if you continue to hire people at Dell, even the incredibly bright people you have been able to attract recently, if you (and Zita) don’t pay careful attention to the deployment and governance model directing everyone’s work you will end up in largely the same place you were when I was last in Austin.
I promise.
I know you’re a big fan of my “people, process, and technology” mantra — hell, I’ve heard you repeat it from a stage (thanks!) But you have to remember that mantra and not sacrifice any one pillar of analytics success for another.
People without technology is an obvious fail; people without process becomes an insidious fail, one with repercussions that often take much longer to manifest than those associated with technology or resource constraints.
All of the successful digital measurement organizations we work with at Web Analytics Demystified, and all of those we see across the globe, are paying as much attention to process as they do people and technology. The brilliance of Bob Page, Joe Megibow, Shari Cleary, and the other “Monster’s of Analytics” in the industry today is that they have figured out how to balance governance and resources to produce tangible results for the business.
I know you will do the same at Dell. Find balance in Zita’s organization and you will continue to rock the stage at Emetrics and before long we will say “Bob Page, Joe Megibow, Lynn Lanphier, Dylan Lewis, and Ed Wu” when we talk about the best of the best.
(Great thoughts about the need for managers, too!)
Anyway, I am very excited to hear that you are doing so well executing against your and Etienne’s plan. I wish you all the best in your endeavors, and next time I’m in Austin let’s grab coffee.
Best,
Eric T. Peterson
Web Analytics Demystified, Inc.
http://www.webanalyticsdemystified.com
Eric,
See, we missed a great opportunity to catch up so many things happened at Dell.
I don’t know where you got the impression that I said “people being more important than process …”. I guess it is probably because I said “number one priority is people and number two is process”. However that’s the priority for “managers” – for me, I can delegate process to our PMO but I can’t delegate people to others. I have to be personally responsible for hiring decisions. At the whole program level, people, process and technology carry the same weight.
As far as “super star”, I am not sure if I want to have that on my resume. I re-read Jim Collins’ book when I prepared the keynote and the first thing he talked about is “Level 5 leadership”. Those people who have made long lasting impacts are the people who have extremely strong professional will but also personal humility to a degree that we can hardly remember their names any more. I think our industry has more super stars than it should and if I have the choice, I’d rather become a person with strong professional will and personal humility like Darwin E. Smith, Colman Mockler etc.
cheers,
Ed