I am the Luckiest Guy in Analytics!
Last week I had the rare opportunity to bring nearly 20 of the best minds in the Analytics industry to a private retreat in Maui, Hawaii. In between events and some well deserved R&R we discussed how our work, the field, and digital marketing as a whole have changed in the near decade since I founded Web Analytics Demystified.
Three things stood out for me after the conversation:
- This is not your father’s analytics industry. The analytics industry I entered in 2000 is gone — the conferences, the Yahoo! groups, the social gatherings — have all gone by the wayside. In the early days we had an analytics community, built largely around the Yahoo! group I founded but supported by the Emetrics Conference, Web Analytics Wednesday gatherings, and even an active conversation on Twitter. Today that community seems fragmented at best across increasingly niche conferences, #channels, and events … and it was not clear to me or anyone else in the room what we could or should do to bring the community back together.
- The more things change, the more they stay the same. Given the changes we see in the broader digital marketing industry one would rationally expect a general maturation of the overall use of analytics in the Enterprise. We see that, especially in our best clients, but I think we are all a little surprised to still see so many entry level questions and “worst of breed” uses of digital analytics out there. To be fair, as consultants we recognize this as job security, but it is still a little amazing that nearly 20 years into the practice of digital measurement we see the type of poorly planned and badly executed analytics implementations that seem to cross my desk on a weekly basis.
- I am the luckiest guy in the analytics industry! Personally the conversation reminded me that because of (or despite) my career in the industry I now find myself surrounded by many of the best minds digital analytics has to offer. Little did I imagine when we built our Team Demystified staff augmentation practice that it would bring the amazing individuals to our door that we have today, each contributing their collective experience and expertise to the broader footprint that Analytics Demystified has built and maintains.
On the last point, after realizing how much Team folks wanted to share, we have created an entirely new blog for our Team Demystified folks that you can subscribe to here:
https://analyticsdemystified.com/category/team-demystified/
With that I will remind you that if you are tired of your current job and want to explore Team Demystified I am always open to the conversation. We wouldn’t be able to talk face-to-face on an awesome catamaran in the Pacific Ocean off of Maui … but you have to start somewhere, right?
