Having trouble trying to communicate a data-interpreted decision with the executive team? Or maybe a small business client is really resistant to understanding the need for adding analytics to a website? Many professionals run into trouble managing the expectations of others. The difficulty can be a particular pain when the situation applies to a client, be it corporate or small. I call it “client funk”. The following are sources of quick tips that can help analytics practitioners minimize “client funk”.
Michael Bierut at Pentagram presented before 300 creative design students and graduates at Galapagos Art Space in Brooklyn. The talk was sponsored by CreativeMornings, a designer forum based in New York City. His talk offered a balanced view of the client/designer relationship, stating the factors that make or break a designer’s success, as well as what makes a good (and bad) client. His intended audience are web designers, but the perspective is very sound for web analytics practitioners, and furthermore, any service providers who work intimately with a client.
For corporate environments, analytics practitioners must understand financial terms to convince managers and decision makers on analytics-related projects. To sway and convince project skeptics, three metrics must be kept in mind with every argument of a project’s merit:
- 1. The dollars needed for invest in the project
- 2. The revenue that can be generated
The third is a metric based on the prior two — return on investment (ROI).
This post on creating an analytics corporate culture (by Top Rank’s Jolina Pettice) offers more on how to convince executive management as well as best practices to establishing analytics as an integral part of a business.
You can also read Avinash Kaushik’s book Web Analytics 2.0. Much of his book addresses the challenges of working with various departments to create an analytics environment. For those with broader analytics application, there is another book, called Analytics at Work, by Tom Davenport and Jeanne Harris.
