Managing Analytics

I plan to share some tips I have learned at work in a series of blog posts and here is the first one.

One common problem we, as web analysts are facing, is people tend to think that we are reporting or data people. And as a result of that, they often come to us and ask for all kinds of data without even telling us why they need it and how they plan to use it. Like it or not, that’s a reality we all have to deal with but that’s not saying that we don’t have any choice.

Actually two choices at least:

Choice number one, give them anything they are looking for, as long as you have it. Result of this? One, you will become a favorite person in the department and people will actually complement on your work and attitude etc. Sometimes if you are lucky, you might also get a team award or something like that. Two, you will be downgraded from a “super web analyst” to a “reporting squirrel”.

Yes, you hear me right. You will be downgraded. Your value will be diminished. You will not be considered as a “thought leader”. At the end of year, when you are doing performance review with your manager, he is going to ask you, “what significant changes you have made to the business?” and your answer, is sadly “no, nothing”.

You can’t make significant contribution to the business by simply providing data or even nice looking reports to people. You have to go beyond that.

So here is the choice number two. Ask smart questions before you give them the data.

Here is a typically scenario: let’s just say that John is doing some projects and heard from Mary that Ed might have some customer information he is looking for. So he sent me an email like this:

“Ed, can you send me whatever information you have about customers’ feedback on our site performance? Thanks very much, John.”

If you didn’t read this blog, you might just spend hours trying to find out the customers’ feedback and send to John. You might end up working late, missing dinner with your family, and hating the company you are working for.

But I don’t like that.

So I sent an email back, trying to be nice, “Hey John, can you give me more context about what exactly you are looking for?”

[more than 50% of time, people will just forget what they were asking for and don't bother to respond again. But John is persistent.]

About a week later, John sent me another email “well, I was just trying to understand what customers’ pain points are…”

[that's interesting. It didn't help me understand all I need know but a step toward right direction]

So I wrote back again, “John, can you give me some examples regarding what customers’ pain points you are looking for and how you want to use this information?”

[more than 90% of time, people will stop asking for data when I ask twice for clarification. But...John is persisitent]

So he sent me an email again “For example, if customers tell us that they can’t make purchase online because some site errors, then my team might be able to solve the issues with our BPI (business process improvement, similiar to 6 sigma) methodology.”

[that's becoming more interesting. He was actually talking about some potential actions there!]

For the third time, (sorry to be pain on the butt), I sent him another email “John, l’d like to meet with you to discuss this. I want to understand more about your methodology / process and make sure I give you right information and data to help you with your project.”

If John is serious enough, we will meet, discuss and formulate a plan. And I’ll find out right information / data and do the analysis for him so that he can really solve customer issues. But if he is not serious enough or has other priorities, we will never meet and he will never ask for the information / data again.

At that time, I am pretty excited and willing to give him help whatever I can. The sad thing is, 95% of time, John never comes back to me again. But that’s ok. The remaining 5% of people still survived are the ones you should really care.

Ok, so this is my “super web analyst” tip one. Is this helpful? How do you deal with similar situation? Kindly share your thoughts here.