

Bursting the Analytics Bubble - ishener
http://thepojoman.blogspot.co.il/2012/11/bursting-analytics-bubble.html

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mhofstadt
I'd have to disagree a bit with the basic assertion of this article. While
focusing on higher quality output of content is clearly useful, it can't be
said that it is necessarily more useful than analytics. First, how do you
quantify the quality of content? Is it by personal preference or by the number
of site users engaging with that content? I'd probably use engagement (the
stuff that leads to revenue) as the metric of choice for ascertaining the
qualitative value of content, and , of course, that would be most accurately
measured by the site's analytic data. Analytics help objectify what content
people like and removes the aspect of personal preference.

Additionally, we need to understand why our traffic does certain things and,
more importantly, why they do not do certain things. Analytics can help
identify deficiencies in our site's user interface that cause friction for
users to do the things we need. Without the proper data to show how users are
interacting on a site, UI designers may be shooting in the dark if the goals
are conversion rates and not just slick designs.

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m104
It's true and unfortunately this has been my experience at a couple of
previous employers as well. Given the difficulties of actually collecting good
data and properly analyzing it, it's no wonder that the same analytical tools,
used to great success in some companies, can be rendered useless or even
harmful.

I'll add that a third reason for the obsession over analytics is that stat
reports tend to take the focus off of the decision makers themselves. Managers
who aren't confident in (or wishing to escape responsibility from) their
decisions can simply blame the numbers and graphs and say they had no other
alternative.

In some dysfunctional organizations, "judgement" and "decision" are bad words
that imply bias and liability, whereas "report" and "conclusion" are pure
gold.

Don't be too discouraged, though. There are plenty of employers who avoid
using analytics inappropriately and know that great products and customer
service are even better than stat reports in the long run.

