Career in Web and Digital Analytics – Online Course

I recently developed an online course which provides information on the Career in Digital and Web analytics. The course is a result of the emails that I get from recent graduates and people who are looking to change their career.  This course "Career in Web & Digital Analytics" is currently available on Udemy 

The course covers following area:

• Introduction to the filed
• Salary Expectation – Industry surveys
• Various Roles
• Deep dive into the roles
• Career progression
• Education and Skills
•  Resources for Learning

I will add more content based on the student feedback.  Here are some ideas of content that I will be adding soon (you will have access to the course forever, so any new content will be available to you as soon as I upload it).

• Who hires – various types of companies
• What a digital marketer needs to know
• Step by step guide

If you are not able to afford $20 for the course but still want it, then let me know what you would like to pay and I will send you a link for the discounted offer. 

Difference between Web Analytics and Digital Analytics

Web Analytics and Digital Analytics are quite often used interchangeably.  I have been asked, by my students and some clients, about the difference in these two, so I decided to write this short post to clarify the terms.

As you can see from the Google Trends graph, Google searches for “Digital Analytics” were nonexistent till Web Analytics Association changed its name to Digital Analytics Association. Since then the term "Digital Analytics" has started to pick up.

In early days of internet, companies started to analyze website data such as users, visitors, visits, page views etc. and the term used to describe this analysis was called “ Web Analytics”.

Then came other forms of online (digital channels) such as email, search, social, mobile etc. and increasingly Digital Analytics folks were including this data and analysis of all these channels to provide a complete view of the “Digital” channels, marketing and customers. To fully include the scope of work of “Web Analysts” a new term “Digital Analytics” was coined.

“Web Analytics” companies like WebTrends, Omniture (now Adobe), Google Analytics etc. also started including data from other online channels and transformed from Web Analytics tools to Digital Analytics tools.

When I was on the board of “Web Analytics Association” from 2009 – 2011, we had several discussions regarding the name of the association. The general consensus was that our members were doing much more than traditional “Web Analytics” and association needs to change the name and scope to include the changing role of "Web Analytics". Association finally changed the name to "Digital Analytics Association" on March 5th, 2012.

So back to the original question - What is the difference between Web Analytics and Digital Analytics?

Web Analytics is analysis of the website data.

Digital Analytics includes analysis of data from all digital channels that includes websites. Data from search, display advertising, social, email, mobile etc. is included to provide a complete view of the digital marketing and customers.

Though usage of Digital Analytics is picking up, “Web Analytics” is still searched more often than “Digital Analytics” as shown in the following Google Trends chart

Thoughts? Comments?

Context is Critical: Creating a Culture of Web Analytics

Continuing my series on Creating a Culture of Analytics I would like to touch on a very critical aspect of creating a culture of Web Analytics and that is Context.

What is Context

According to Princeton.edu context is

• Discourse that surrounds a language unit and helps to determine its interpretation
• the set of facts or circumstances that surround a situation or event

Context takes the ambiguity out of the equation. As an Analyst it is very important that you provide full context when reporting your web analytics data. Context gets everybody on the same page. Do not leave anything for interpretation by the end users of your reports, give them the insights in a simple and easy to understand format.

Let’s look at an example to understand critical context is.

60 Degrees

If I say it is going to be 60 degrees tomorrow. What will be you reaction?
If you are in Minnesota – You will yell “Summer”
If you are in Seattle, you will think – ““Spring”
If you are in Florida, you will say “ Damn… Cold”
If you are in India, you will say “WTF….” (Indians measures temperature in Celsius and 60 degrees Celsius is 140 F)

Some other question that might pop in people’s mind are:

• What is the temperature today?
• Is it normal to have 60 degrees this time of the year

Without context 60 degrees does not mean much. Right.
Similarly when you report your numbers and tell report on visits, page views, time on site etc. it does not mean much unless you provide the full context.

Web Analytics & Context

Just saying that Visits are down by 10% from last week is not enough. You have to put that 10% decline in full context. Tell your end users what happened and why they should or should not worry.

So add something like : Visits are down 10% from last week and also 10% lower compared to the same time last year. Prior to this week we saw a 10% year over year growth but last week was abnormally down. Isn’t that betting better now?

You should go even further: Last year we got some free advertising from local newspaper sites that drove 20% additional traffic same time last year. Since we did not have the advertising deal this year, it impacted our visits this year. We noted the potential impact of newspaper site advertising in our last year’s annual recap (here is the link to last year report – people forget so remind them). If we take out the impact of spike from newspaper sites then we have a consistent pattern of 10% year over year increase. As noted in last few reports, that increase is due to our social media efforts this year. Now the picture is much clearer. Of course you should look into the full impact e.g. conversion, bounces, sales etc. (Note: How you present this story will depend on what format you chose to present your report)

Now everybody is on the same page and knows exactly what those numbers mean. Without that context, everybody would have had their own interpretations of the data. Misinterpretations lead to wrong action and/or mistrust in the data and the analytics team.

Final Words

Do not provide any reports without providing full context. Keep in mind that most of the canned and automatic reports do more harm than good because they do not provide context.

Other posts in the series

• The Curse of Knowledge: Creating a Culture of Web Analytics
• Creating a Culture of Web Analytics

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Follow me on twitter @anilbatra

Facebook Page http://www.facebook.com/pages/Anil-Batra-Page/130050670343547

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Looking to fill your Web Analytics or Online Marketing position?  Post your open jobs on Web Analytics Job Board.

Current Open Positions

• Web Analytics Senior Implementation Consultants (Contractor)  at Acceleration Emarketing (New York, NY)
• Web Analytics Analyst at Designory. (formerly Agency.com) (Chicago, IL)
• Web Games Analyst at Arkadium (New York, NY)
• Online Performance Data Analyst at Announce Media (St Louis, MO)
• Web Data Analyst at Genworth Financial (Richmond, VA)
• Web Games Analyst at Arkadium (New York, NY)
• Web Metrics Analyst at Omnitec Solutions (Alexandria, VA)

Creating a Culture of Web Analytics

All those who have worked at companies which never used or do not use web analytics to make decisions about site changes, know how difficult it is to create a culture of web analytics. It is very hard. Building a culture of web analytics is a grueling uphill task.
After working with various client I have found that reasons for not using web analytics vary from company to company, some of the common ones are:

• Gut feel has always worked or at least it seems like it has worked
• It is an additional step in the process
• New skills are required to use web analytics. They feel they don’t have the required skills for using web analytics
• Fear of accountability i.e. now I will be measured and I don’t like that
• The reports that they got in past were pretty useless
• They didn’t believe in web analytics data because they have no clue on how the data was collected
• They don’t understand how web analytics can help them
• They don’t understand what web analytics is

The first reaction of many newly hired analyst/analytics manager is to start talking about KPIs, reports, what web analytics can do etc. But before you start digging into the data and analysis and start to talk about KPIs, dashboards etc. you need to understand the root cause of why analytics has not been used in the past. Understanding and tacking those issues will give you a better platform to build the culture of analytics on.

Here are few things you need to do before jumping into KPIs

• Identify various stakeholders, who could benefit from web analytics, in the company. You don’t have to have a comprehensive list of every person but some that you think could immediately benefit and you can immediately help is also a good list to start with
• Get a meeting with them, individually or grouped together in groups based on their roles/departments etc.
• Agenda of the first meeting should be to understand why they have not used web analytics in the past and what they would like to see from web analytics group. Don’t talk about KPIs yet. This meeting is about hearing them, if they talk about goals, metrics etc. then fine but don’t jump to discussing KPIs
• Make sure they understand that there will be a follow-up and you are there to help them not to use numbers to find faults. You need collaboration. Don’t let other people’s opinion about HiPPOs put you in an offensive or defensive position
• Schedule a follow-up meeting to go over you analysis of the past meeting, address any concerns/issues that are preventing them to use analytics

The goal of this exercise is to make people feel confident that you can truly help them make data driven decisions without jeopardizing their job. You understand their concerns and are willing to address them.

During this process you will also find out who all (groups/individual) are more willing than others to help you build your case and will provide you small wins that you can use to garner more support. If you have an executive support e.g. your bosses boss then leverage that to help you.

At the end,remember, every company is different. The culture is different, challenges are different, political structure is different so it is critical you understand all those elements. It is not going to happen overnight so be prepared for a long rocky journey.

Comments/Questions?

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Follow me on twitter @anilbatra

Facebook Page http://www.facebook.com/pages/Anil-Batra-Page/130050670343547

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Looking to fill your Web Analytics or Online Marketing position?  Post your open jobs on Web Analytics Job Board.

Current Open Positions

Web Games Analyst at Arkadium (New York, NY)

Online Performance Data Analyst at Announce Media (St Louis, MO)

Web Data Analyst at Genworth Financial (Richmond, VA)

Web Games Analyst at Arkadium (New York, NY)

Web Metrics Analyst at Omnitec Solutions (Alexandria, VA)

Web Data Analyst at Alzheimer's Association (Chicago, IL)

Web Analytics Manager at Tig Global (Chevy Chase, MD)

Web Analytics, Search Marketing and Social Media Analytics Jobs

I have few open positions in Web Analytics, Search Marketing (Organic and Paid) and Social Media Analytics.

Job Requirements
One of the following

• Web Analytics Tools Implementation: Omniture, WebTrends, Coremetrics, Google Analytics, Yahoo! Web Analytics etc.? Any one tool experience is good.
• Analysis: Do you have experience making sense of the data collected by the web analytics tool? It does not matter which tool.
• Optimization – Do you have experience with A/B , Muti-variate testing or targeting? Experience with Google Website Optimizer, Test&Target, Widemile, Optimost etc?
• Search Engine Optimization – Do you have experience doing search engine optimization? Are you passionate about it? Show me some examples? Show me your process.
• Paid Search – Have you run campaigns on Google Adwords? Bing or Yahoo? What has been the outcome?
• Social Media Analytics – Do you have experiencing analyzing and making recommendations based on social media conversation? Do you have experience using tools like Radian6, SM2, and Visible Technologies etc.? Do you have passion for social media?

If you answer is YES to one or more of the above bullet items then send me your resume. Even if you are not actively looking for a job this won’t hurt.

Job Responsibilities:

Our ultimate goal is to help customer get the biggest bang for their buck.
Work in a fast paced environment and do some cool stuff.
Send me your resume and we will take it from there.

Full Time or Contract?


Either will work. If the fit is there we can make either happen.

Why isn’t there more information?

Well because I don’t want you box yourself based on what I want and provide you a laundry list of experiences. I want you to tell me what you are looking for and see if there is an immediate match, if not then there will be more opportunities. I also know some other organizations that are looking for people maybe I can hook you up with them.

How to contact me?
Twitter: @anilbatra
Email: batraonline at gmail(dot) com

3 Roles in Web Analytics

Despite slow economy many companies are hiring web analysts. A quick search on Simplyhired.com, a site that powers the Web Analytics job board on my blog, shows that there are currently 2,007 open positions and indeed.com, another job sites shows over 4800 open positions. That is a huge number.

However, many job seekers I have talked to feel frustrated because most of the jobs have a laundry list of requirements and they don’t feel that they are a right fit for most of these open positions. A lot of “Web Analytics” job openings ask for many of the following:

• Experience in online marketing


• Experience in Web Analytics


• Experience in – Google analytics, Omniture, Webtrends, Coremetrics etc.


• Experience in implementing Omniture, Google Analytics, WebTrends etc.


• Experience in A/B and Multivariate testing


• Experience in Search engine optimization


• Experience in search engine marketing


• Experience with SQL


• Experience in email marketing


• Experience in Social media

The mismatch in what a company really needs and what they are asking in the job requirements is a cause of frustration on both ends. The issue really stems from lack of understanding of what web analytics is and what role a web analyst need to play in the organization.

Most of the companies looking for a “web analysts” are in one of the following three stages of web analytics staffing

1. They don’t have any tool but they realize the need and are looking for someone who can help them with “web analytics”.


2. They just installed Google Analytics or were sold one of the other paid tool but are not getting much value from their web analytics tool. They need an analyst to help them do “web analytics”.


3. They already have a web analytics tool installed and have a web analytics team. Since the company is now using web analytics to made business decision they need to hire one or more analysts to support the growing demand.

Companies falling in the third stage know what they are doing and usually narrow down the requirements. They are usually clear on what kind of person they are looking for.

Companies who fall in stage 1 and 2 above are the ones who are usually not clear on the role of a “web analyst” and hence create this laundry list of skills. Hiring manger looks at few job openings posted by other to get an idea of what a “web analyst’ should do. She then includes all the buzzwords and sends the requirements to HR or the recruiting company. HR screens the resume and if the keywords shown above do not appear on the resume the resume is rejected. As a result, companies loose several good candidates while candidates loose many good job opportunities.

3 Roles in Web Analytics

If you are a hiring manager, you need to understand and thoroughly evaluate your need before opening the job req. This will help you remove the noise from requirements and find the best candidate for the job. To make your job easier I have categories web analytics work into 3 job roles.

1. Implementation Specialist/Engineer – If you are looking to implement a web analytics tool then you will need an Implementation Engineer. Implementation Engineer is usually the one who manages implementation of the web analytics tool and/or maintains ongoing implementation changes. This is a technical role. For this role you will need a person who has experience in implementation of the web analytics tool of you choice (Note: Tool Selection is a complex process and you should hire a 3rd party consulting company to help you with it if you have not already selected the tool). An implementation engineer generally takes the business requirements and converts them into technical requirements for the web development team to implement the code on the pages. Implementation Engineer works closely with “Web Analyst” (described below) web development and QA to ensure that correct data is collected. The right candidate for this role understands how internet technologies work. She needs to have a good grasp of JavaScript (most of the web analytics implementations require JavaScript tagging). She might also need to understand how to integrate various data sources together. For many companies, once the tool is implemented there might not be a daily need to make changes to the tool so it might make more sense to outsource this function to a web analytics vendor, agency building/maintaining your site or a web analytics consulting company instead of hiring a fulltime person.


2. Reporting Analyst – If you are looking for someone to pull the data from your web analytics tools or other reporting application then you need to hire a reporting analysts. A lot of the companies confuse “web reporting” with “web analytics”(See my blog post titled Are you doing web reporting or web analytics). Reporting analysts usually understands the interface of the various tools and can pull the data that is required by other stakeholder. A reporting analyst might need to have SQL skills to pull the data from databases. Some organizations might need a person who can make pretty scorecard and charts. For this role, it is good to have a person who has experience with the tools of your choice but don’t make it a deal breaker. If the candidate has worked on any of the web analytics tools then she can usually get trained in other web analytics tools. Determine what other tools do you have and what skills might be required to pull the data from all these tools, that you might need for you reporting and then write the job requirements.


3. Web Analyst – This is more of a business role and truly a web analyst’s role. This is a person who can make sense of the web data and drive insights to impact the bottom line. She will provide business requirements to the Implementation Engineer to work on and will use reporting analyst to get the data for analysis. Web analysts are inquisitive and analytical, they question the data to come up with the story that the data is telling. Web Analyst has the ability to understand and analyze various data pieces such as competitive, qualitative, web analytics, social media, financial etc and drive business changes. Web Analyst should also be able to run A/B and Multivariate tests to improve website performance. Depending on the size of your organization and A Web Analysts will not be afraid to stand in front of executives to explain and defend their findings. If you are looking to get actionable recommendation and drive business changes based on web analytics data then you need a Web Analyst.

Hope this will help you in properly wording your job requirements and avoid the frustration of not filling the position.

Comments? Questions?

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Looking to fill your Web Analytics or Online Marketing position?
Post your open jobs on http://www.web-analytics-jobs.com/
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Career in Web Analytics

Web Analytics is one of the hottest fields these days. A lot of people are planning to switch careers and many students are looking to start their career in Web Analytics but don’t know where to start. This article is for aspiring web analysts to help them make a transition into web analytics field.

Skills required to be a Web Analyst

First and foremost you need desire and passion to be a web analyst. Desire and passion will get you where you want to go. I believe (and this is my opinion only), if you have the desire and passion then you can acquire other skills. Not everybody will agree with me but again, that’s my view.

The other most important skill that you need is analytical skill. If you are a person who always looks at the problem from a different angle than most of the other people, you have what it takes. If you can put different pieces of the puzzle together to form a complete picture you have the skills to be a web analyst. If you can critically look at things, you have the skills.

Other skills and education that will come in handy are:
1. Business
2. Marketing
3. Statistics
4. Technical

You don’t need a college degree but a lot of employers look for it and I look at it when hiring a candidate. Business, Marketing, Accounting, Statistics and Technical degrees will be very helpful in getting you the job but I have seen Web Analysts with very diverse educational background.
I highly recommend reading the series of interviews I conducted with several web analysts. This will give you an idea of what they think are the skills required to be a web analyst. They also have advice for people who aspire to a career in this field.

Checkout what other web analysts think about the skills required to be a web analyst.

Learning about web analytics

There are several resources available to learn about Web Analytics. There are several blogs on Web Analytics where you can get all levels of information on this subject.

First and foremost you should join WebAnalytics group on Yahoo. This forum is a great source of information. You will find all levels of web analysts in this forum. This is a free for all forum, even if you want to stay on the sideline and just read messages, you can learn a lot. If you have any question on this subject, feel free to ask at this forum.

Buy a copy of Web Analytics Demystified by Eric Peterson and a copy of Web Analytics: An Hour a Day by Avinash Kaushi. These are the two best resources for all levels of web analytics, especially for those who are just starting. Here is a list of books recommended by other web analysts

Online Course by University of British Columbia

If you are prefer to learn in formal way then I recommend the course offered by University of British Columbia. You can learn more about this course at http://www.tech.ubc.ca/metrics/curric.html. (Full Disclaimer: I am one of the associate instructors for this course). This course is offered in partnership with Web Analytics Association (WAA).

Online Reading

Reading blogs, articles and whitepapers is another way to expand your knowledge. There are several blogs out there which touch on various topics on Web Analytics and other related topics. I would recommend you familiarize yourself with the Web Analytics field (see above) before reading these blogs. Both of these blogs have a list of lots of other blogs on Web Analytics. I won’t give you a list of top 10, top 20 blogs because it all depends on what topic you are trying to learn more about. The more you read the better you will understand this field. If you do not have time to go to each and every blog every day you can setup blog alerts on Google for “Web Analytics”


Gaining Practical Experience

This is one of the biggest challenges facing people who want to start a career in Web Analytics. Employers don’t want to hire you if you don’t have experience and you can’t get experience if you don’t have job. (See Getting a Job for more information)

Google Analytics has made it really easy for anybody to get a web analytics tool. This tool is completely free with all the documentation to help you get rolling. If you have a website, deploy this tool and play with it. This will help you understand how web analytics tools and reports work. To gain further experience, tap into your network, I am sure somebody (a friend of a friend of a friend…) will allow you (especially if you are willing to do it for free) to provide reporting and analysis on their site (real site).

Getting a Job

Bloggers and analysts write about the shortage of Web Analysts all the time. There are plenty of companies who are looking for web analysts but are not able to fill the open positions. But when you look at open positions they all need at least 2+ year of experience in omniture, webtrend etc. So what do you do when all you have is some Google Analytics experience on your blog and a certificate from UBC?

As I said before, you don’t need any experience to find a job in this field, all you need is analytical mindset and desire to learn and grow. There are companies who will hire you, train you and provide the support to help you grow. Even though the job requirements asks for 2+ numbers of years in web analytics or web analytics tools, the fact is that there is indeed a shortage of experienced web analytics people. So the companies might be willing to settle for someone without any experience as long as the candidate can demonstrate analytical thinking, desire and passion, and of-course a certificate from UBC will help. Chances of you getting a job without any real experience are pretty good. However, keep in mind that these companies might not be able to relocate you, so you will be limited by the opportunities in the companies in your geographic area.

My advice is that if you see such a job opening, go ahead and apply. If the company has a senior analyst who is willing to teach then you will get a call.

During the interview process make sure that there will be someone who is willing to provide you on the job training. That will make your life easy. You will probably learn faster than those who don’t have that kind of support.

Also, make sure to understand what your role will be. I am amazed to see that some of the job postings want everything on the earth: Omniture, .Net, SQL, Marketing Analysis, Business Objects and the list goes on. If you do apply and get a call from these companies, make sure you clearly understand what you are getting into and that’s what you want to do.

Go ahead and email me (batraonline at gmail) your resume and I will see what I can do for you.

If you have any questions please feel free to email me or a leave a message with your contact information.

Note: This post is an updated version of the blog post that I wrote in 2006.


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Looking to fill your Web Analytics or Online Marketing position? Try WebAnalytics Job Board
New Positions

• Mktg Web Analytics Manager at NetApp (Sunnyvale, California)


• Web Data Analyst at Alzheimer's Association (Chicago, IL)

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Web Analytics Jobs

To post web analytics jobs visit Web Analytics Job Board

1. Director of Web/E-Commerce Analytics at World Wrestling Entertainment, INC (WWE)
   WWE is a Billion Dollar Sports & Entertainment Company located in Stamford, Connecticut.
   
   Job Responsibilities:
   
   • Serve as internal subject matter expert on the reporting tools and metrics by providing information on best practices, benchmarks, key performance indicators, etc.
   
   
   • Tracking and comparing traffic drivers and usage trends and recommending site enhancements where appropriate to improve user experience, increase traffic, online sales and overall value to marketing and advertising partners.
   
   
   • Work with marketing, e-commerce, business and creative teams to understand their reporting needs, design reports to meet the requirements and work with colleagues to make sure the reports are properly interpreted and used. Respond to ongoing internal customer requests for data and analysis.
   
   
   • Provide leadership in Search Marketing area.
   
   
   • Provide training on how to interpret and use data for business analysis.
   
   
   • Supervise up to 3 people
   
   
   See the complete details at http://webanalysis.jobamatic.com/a/jbb/job-details/23036
   


2. Sr. Web Analytics Manager at NY Times Company
   The New York Times Company located in New York is a leading media company with 2007 revenues of $3.2 billion, includes The New York Times, the International Herald Tribune, The Boston Globe, 15 other daily Newspapers, WQXR-FM and more than 50 Web sites, including NYTimes.com, Boston.com and About.com. The Company's core purpose is to enhance society by creating, collecting and distributing high-quality news, information and entertainment
   
   Job Responsibilities:
   
   
   • Deeply understand the NYTimes.com audience and their behavior
   
   
   • Support the analytic needs of the company by using WebTrends and other analytical tools to understand trends in web traffic
   
   
   • Develop analysis that covers marketing campaigns, financial performance, marketing efforts and engagement
   
   
   • Be a thought leader; work with other groups to ensure best practices in metrics and decision making are available to website decision makers
   
   
   • Work with the NYT customer insight group to coordinate and focus quantitative and qualitative analysis related to audience behavior
   
   
   • Develop effective and persuasive presentations (verbal and written)
   
   
   • Work with our technology team to optimize data capture strategy and to collaboratively implement enhancements
   
   
   • Mentor junior members of the web analytics staff
   
   
   
   
   See the complete details at http://webanalysis.jobamatic.com/a/jbb/redirect/21516
   

To post web analytics jobs visit Web Analytics Job Board

Web Analyst Interview: Jacques Warren

Continuing my series of interviews with Web Analysts, here is an interview with Jacques Warren.

What is your current position and the name of the company you work for.

I am an independent consultant in Web Analytics. My company’s name is WAO Marketing, which stands for Web Analytics & Optimization (well, I guess I’m not so good at branding!), but it is in fact a one-man show. I intend it to stay that way.

How long have you been working in this fields.

I have been in Interactive Marketing for 12 years now, and I decided to focus all my time to Web Analytics 6 years ago. I knew then that it was impossible to be a good Web marketer without making use of all that data. I still strongly believe that analytics, not just Web Analytics, will deeply impact marketing, and how we do business in general.

Tell me about you Interactive Marketing experience, prior to web analytics.

I was in interactive marketing, mainly in agencies. I did have a small company in the 90’s specialized in localizing Web sites in Japanese, and promote them to that market. For many years, Japanese was the second most used language on the Web after English. I believe it lost this title to Chinese, but Japan is still by far the second largest economy. It made sense then to use the Web in the context of international business, although what I was doing was too niched to make a living. My academic background is Sociology. I did some graduate studies, but the desire to travel got into the way of my thesis, and I never finished it. However, I believe that background helps me a lot today, having trained my mind on abstract thought, analysis, and synthesis.

Why focus on Web Analytics?

How can you manage it if you don’t measure it? Back in 2002, after getting fired for not selling enough Web development projects (ah! Those darn 2000 – 2002 years!), I knew that companies could not keep indefinitely throwing money at the Web without starting the hard business questions about the value of all that. It was the beginning of the web normalization; it was time to treat it as another way of doing business. And if it was business, well, then it had to be accountable.

Tell me more about when and why you created your own company?

I actually created my company in April 2007 when I decided to leave Bell Business Solutions, a Bell Canada subsidiary, where I had started the Web Analytics service offer in 2002. We were working with external clients. I had a really good time then, because we were discovering this new field, trying to make it a revenue stream through consulting and reselling WebTrends, and just plainly educating Web managers about the benefits of Web Analytics. So you could say that I have always been on the consulting side of WA. I’m a consultant at heart. I believe I have the required qualities: expertise, communication skills, empathy, and a deep understanding of organizational contexts. If you can’t understand how well (or badly) a company can integrate what you bring it, chances are good that the project will fail. I will confess something to you: getting independent was the best decision I have made professionally in a very long time.

What are you responsibilities? Describe your typical work day.

Well, of course, finding work is, in theory, a good part of what preoccupies me. I say in theory, because my only merit since I left Bell has been to answer the phone. I am amazingly lucky that work comes to me.
So, my main responsibility is to bring maximum value in usually very short time to organizations who need to evolve in Web Analytics. I do a lot of consulting in KPI, dashboard, analysis work, and WebTrends implementation and training. I work with other applications (Google Analytics, Omniture), but only do sophisticated implementations with WebTrends. I was a Premier Reseller at Bell for several years, and although I am not a technical guy, I had to deeply learn
the product. Without my planning it when I started, I turned out to be one of the top WebTrends people here in Canada.

Besides doing the work I am paid for, I spend a good part of my time in meetings, and interacting with managers. Web Analytics is now understood as being crucial, and people want to learn as much as they can, and understand how they can make it a part of their daily practices.

What, in your opinion, are the skills that you think are important for a web
analyst?

Having an analytical mind? Yes, sure, of course. But a “synthetical” one too, although that word doesn’t exist. Interpretation resides at that level; the big picture that is constructed through all that slice and dice. You must master your framework, here Web marketing. I believe I am an excellent web analyst because I am first and foremost a great Web marketer. Well, this is not the most humble thing I have muttered in years… But it’s true!

Do I need to stress the importance of communications skills? Analytics is done in such context, politics, ambitious people, P&L obsession, etc., that what you communicate is never purely objective, even though “I’m not saying it; the numbers are!”. You will expose people, plans, projects. Sure, you will as well demonstrate success, but companies are run by humans, who have a strong tendency to like status quo, and status.

What, if any, education or work experience helped you in your job.

I am of course an avid reader in everything Web Analytics, but also in business, marketing, etc. I also attend training, such as Stephen Few’s workshop on data visualization. That was Stephen first public class last June, and it had a big impact on my work. As for work experience, well, I had dozens of projects done when I decided to fly solo; that of course made the decision way easier, since I was offering deep expertise and experience to the market from day one.

What education is lacking, education or experience that would have helped?

More statistics.

What web analytics/online-marketing books have you read and/or own?

All of them, and most white papers out there. Of course, one needs to read
outside one’s field to find stuff that could be applied. Recent readings are:

The Power to Predict,

Fooled by Randomness,

The Black Swan,

Super Crunchers, and

Competing on Analytics.


What were the major challenges you faced or are facing in this industry?

Adoption, adoption, adoption. I have been at it for six years now, and doing a lot of education here in my market (Province of Quebec in particular, but everywhere I go). Although I am very happy about how much awareness our field is getting these days, I am still amazed at how little still many companies do with the information they get. Acting upon the findings remains what it is all about.

How do you make sure you are learning and growing in this field.

I read a lot of books as I mentioned before. I also read all the blogs (but not always all the posts) in the field. I also watch for conferences and seminar that will help me grow. Paying for all that with my own money, I am very discriminating, and choosey; I wish I could go to more. If you happen to work for a company that gives you a good budget for that, don’t hesitate to use it
all!

Do you have blog? If yes, what kind of article do you write.

I actually have several, Analytics Notes (http://www.waomarketing.com/blog/) in English where I am more interested in the relationships between analytics and marketing culture.
Web Analytique & Optimisation (http://www.waomarketing.com/blogFR/wordpress/) in French, where I discuss the more basic stuff. The Big Integration (http://www.thebigintegration.com/blog/) in English about the data integration stuff. It’s also got a Forum (http://www.thebigintegration.com/forum/) WebKaiseki no Kiso (http://www.waomarketing.com/blogJP/) in Japanese about basic stuff. But I have neglected that one for a while, since writing in that language demands me a lot of time.

What is your advice to aspiring web analysts?

Understand the web and Interactive marketing first and foremost.

Thank you Warren.

Skills required for a Web Analyst – Part II

Over the past year or so I interviewed a few web analytics professionals. In the interviews one of the questions I asked them was about the skills that they think are important for a web analyst. In this 2 part series I have compiled their responses to that question.
If you are a hiring manager looking for web analyst or somebody who wants to start a career in web analytics then this article is for you.

This is the second part in the two part series of "Skills required for a Web Analyst". You can read the first part at http://webanalysis.blogspot.com/2008/02/skills-required-for-web-analyst.html.

So here are some of the responses:

"To me, the Web needs three ingredients: clear business objectives, a communication strategy and the technology to support them. The best web analyst would be savvy and top of the line in all three... which is probably impossible to find. But everyone can rate himself on a virtual scale and see where they stand and where they want to be."
Stephane Hamel, Web Analytics freelancer and creator of WASP tool

Curiosity and enthusiasm. I know these aren't skills so much as innate qualities, but I believe if you can go a long way as a web analyst with curiosity and enthusiasm. If you are genuinely interested in what you're doing, it shows."
June Dershewitz, Vice President Semphonic

"Analysts work at various levels -- the most fundamental level requires some understanding of basic statistics, such as linear regression, seasonality, and simple trend forecasting, combined with an understanding of how the web "works." In other words, what do we know about browsing behavior, combined with cookie deletion probabilities, web server caching, and other artifacts of the web experience, to put our data into a reasonable context, from which we can draw useful conclusions?

Beyond that basic level, though, is an understanding of organizational politics, and some fluency in "managing your message" so that the analysis you've worked hard at creating actually influences managers in making better decisions. Otherwise, you're just creating "doorstop reports," that don't help your organization, and don't really justify your efforts."
WDave Rhee, Analytics Country Manager, Germany, OX2 / LBi Group

"I think 2 of the biggest skills required to be a web analyst is to be able combine technical skills along with business/marketing skills in order to understand your customer’s goals and provide value to them. Secondly you have to be passionate about what you do, if you don’t like what you’re doing you will not give 100% effort."
Manoj Jasra, Director of Technology at Enquiro

Do you agree with these Web Analytics professionals? What skills do you think are important? Let me know and I will add them to my next post.

Skills required for a Web Analyst - Part I

Web Analytics has become one of the hottest career fields and it is becoming hard to find people with web analytics experience. So if you can’t find people with web analytics experience then what do you do? Well, I interviewed a few of web analytics professionals and one of the questions I asked them was regarding the skills they think were important for a web analyst. In this 2 part series I have compiled their responses to that question, which should help you in understand what skills you should look for when hiring a web analyst.
If you are a hiring manager looking for web analyst or somebody who wants to start a career in web analytics, this article is for you.
So here are some of the responses:

I believe that an ideal Web Analyst should poses blend of Business and Technical skills. He should be articulate and understand the online business quickly.
-Trinadh Rao, Country Manager Web Analytics Association, India Web Analytics Manager at Franklin Templeton

A great deal of tenacity and, being sharp enough to make the connection between right and left brain items.
-Daniel Shields, Web Analyst at CableOrganizer.com

In my opinion a web analyst needs to understand the data and site dynamics of their particular website. Should have decent technical knowledge, good customer focus and attention to details. Should intuitively pick insight from an otherwise burgeoning deluge of data.
-Jaisiri Chetty, Asst. Manager (Insight), Tesco.com

In terms of education any advanced course in statistics should work as a passport to Web Analyst job. He/She should be genuinely good at collating different industry information.
-Apurba Sen, Product Manager at Rediff.com India Ltd

A sense of abstract thinking and Art (seeing the whole picture at once) is important for Web Analytics work.

I think what a lot of companies are asking for has nothing much to do with what is needed to be truly effective. In order to be effective as a Web Analyst you don’t usually need a degree in statistics or be trained as a rocket scientist (yet that is what all the job descriptions I’ve seen ask for – like a big long laundry list) you need the ability to understand what some one needs to measure, what the goals are, and a technical mastery to the tools, the web analytics platforms being used. The least important thing is to know the tools beforehand – because anyone can learn them fairly quickly who is not brain dead (yet this is precisely what most interviewers ask for first – knowledge of the tools)

The most important thing, in any job, is being effective in the job you’ll be hired for –being trusted, that you can deliver what say you can deliver on…and a lot of that is based on trust, on conveying confidence, conveying authority. The technical part is more like the icing the cake, as far as I’m concerned. I go for rapport, gut feeling, intuitive knowledge and visualization of what my clients want and need, and even what they don’t know to ask for, but which they still need…I try to give them…and this is not just at IBM, but all my work is done like this.

You know you’re effective when you’re allowed to work on the “big problems” in your organization. It’s a feedback loop. You need to get trust of higher ups so they’ll let you get the relevant experience that actually makes you valuable in the marketplace (so that you can “move up”). The paradox is, believing in your self first, is necessary in order to get any kind of trust and buy in so that you’ll be allowed to work on the big stuff.

You also need people to like you – and for some people, that’s easier to achieve than others. I won’t say that people that are disliked are not effective – they can be also, but they’re probably miserable and less effective than if they were liked.

But none of these skills is actually what is asked of you in an interview – yet some interviewers will make note of them, nonetheless and the one’s that do are the one’s to work for.
-Marshall Sponder, Blogger at Webmetricsguru.com

More to come in part II.

You might also want to check my blog post titled "Starting a career in web analytics", that I wrote more than an year ago.

What skills do you think are important? Let me know and I will add them to my next post.

Web Analyst Interview: June Dershewitz

Continuing my series of interviews with Web Analysts, here is an interview with June Dershewitz.

What is your current position and the name of the company you work for?

VP Analytics at Semphonic, a leading web analytics consultancy based in the San Francisco Bay Area.

How long have you been working in this field?

9 years.

Tell me about your work, education prior to entering Web Analytics.

I have a BA in Mathematics from Reed College in Portland, OR. After college I spent 4 years as a research assistant for a mathematician at Swarthmore College in Philadelphia, PA. In 1999 I moved to San Francisco and got my first job as a web analyst at a startup. I've worked in web analytics ever since. Most recently I spent 3 1/2 yearsas an independent consultant, taking project-based assignments at companies throughout the Bay Area. I started a new chapter 5 months ago when I joined Semphonic as a salaried employee.

Why did you decided to move to Web Analytics?

It was a brand-new field when I fell into it in 1999. Back then I aspired to be a web developer, but my future employer saw my affinity for data analysis and offered me a position as a web analyst. I took the leap, and I'm so glad I did.

How did you like being an Independent Consultant?

I loved being independent. I worked 8 months a year and made enough money to afford to live in San Francisco which wasn't bad. I did a lot of traveling, volunteer work and homemaking, on the other hand there was no stability, I was constantly job-hunting, and I was completely alone. At Semphonic I have a whole team to work with, and I love that aspect of the work I do now

How did you find your job at Semphonic?

I met Gary Angel in May 2007 at eMetrics in San Francisco and I joined his team at Semphonic 3 months later, in August. I think we both knew from the start that I'd be a great fit at Semphonic; it was just a matter of getting the ball rolling. My path to Semphonic was not your typical, "see job posting, write cover letter, get interview" progression. I've found that, as I continue to build experience and connections in this field, my approach to career growth is evolving. I'm not going to say it's all about who you know, but I'm definitely in favor of leveraging connections to make progress.

What are you responsibilities in your current position? Describe your typical work day.

I live for variety, and I certainly get that variety at Semphonic. I am fortunate enough to work with a great set of clients; every day I talk to one or more clients about the work at hand. Depending on the size of the project I'll work with a team or on my own to keep everything moving in the right direction. My current projects span the gamut of data analysis, measurement strategy definition, report development/automation, etc. I also talk to prospective customers now and then, write project proposals, write for my blog, and confer with my Semphonic colleagues. One of main reasons I joined Semphonic was so I'd have the chance to work collaboratively with other top-notch analysts, and I have found that opportunity very fulfilling.

What are the skills that you think are important for a web analyst?

Curiosity and enthusiasm. I know these aren't skills so much as innate qualities, but I believe if you can go a long way as a web analyst with curiosity and enthusiasm. If you are genuinely interested in what you're doing, it shows.

What, if any, education or work experience helped you in Web Analytics?

As much as I love the study of mathematics, I don't often put my academic background to use in any direct sense. On the other hand I know that math has given me a good analytical foundation: a general level of comfort with numbers, solid problem-solving skills, a fine sense of logic. On paper I believe it's helped me get ahead a few times during the job-hunting process; a number of interviewers have mentioned that I'd been given preference because of my math degree. I feel lucky but I also find this frustrating because I know that great web analysts come from a diverse array of educational backgrounds.

What education you feel is lacking, education or experience that would have helped in Web Analytics?

When I entered the field of web analytics it was squarely planted in the technical realm, and over time it's become part of marketing. I've picked up quite a bit through real-world experience, but if I was starting over from scratch I'd definitely take formal coursework in marketing.

What web analytics/online-marketing books have you read and/or own?

Actually, these days I prefer to do my reading online rather than in print. I am drawn to blogs because they're so fresh, candid and diverse in opinion. I have about 80 blogs in my feed reader right now; some are specific to web analytics, others are in related specializations, and some cover the web industry in general. I try to keep up with my reading every day, but if I get behind I'll skim the content from frequent posters and focus on the bloggers who post just a few high-quality articles a month. Also, I've just started using the Google Reader Shared Items feature and I've found that it's a great way to discover new blogs that my friends are reading.

How do you make sure you are learning and growing in this field?

I face the challenge of wanting to be a specialist and a generalist at the same time. I think, as a consultant, it's desirable to have a broad range of skills, but I also know that it can be valuable to pick a specialty and stick with it. I believe you've done a great job of it, Anil, with your specialization on behavioral targeting. Naturally I focus my learning on topics I find personally intriguing, but I'm also on the lookout for areas of study that will open up new career opportunities in the future. Ultimately I intend to have my skills evolve in the direction I want my career to go.

Tell me about your blog. What kind of article do you write? How much time do you spend? How do you measure success of your blog?

I started my blog a few months ago; you can find it at http://june.typepad.com/. My cardinal rule is that I'll write about whatever I find interesting as long as it can be directly related to web analytics. Last month I posted a picture of my family's pet chicken - but really, it was still on-topic. As a new blogger I had no idea how much fun it would be to get comments on my blog posts.
The comments, the personal feedback, the new connections - that's how I gauge success and that's what keeps me going.

What do you look for in a candidate when you hire?

As I mentioned earlier, curiosity and enthusiasm. Show me that you really want to be here, that you're truly interested, that you're motivated by more than just a paycheck.

What is your advice to aspiring web analysts?

If you're not yet certain you'd enjoy the work, conduct informational interviews with people who are in positions you'd like to attain. Ask them about their career, what they like about it, what they don't, what they think is challenging, etc. By all means read the interviews Anil has compiled here - but also be sure to talk to people on your own. You'll wind up with valuable insight and new friends, too.

Thank you June.


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