Role of Web Analytics Analysts and Expectations

I wonder lately…  it seems like a lot of people are aware of web analytics practices and online analytics practices are much more common than years ago, but when you say you do digital analytics or web anlaytics, people don’t get it.  However, the moment you mention Google Analytics, it seems like people get.  It is probably more associable to common folks as a lot of people are writing blogs and may have used it at some point.

That’s a good news for people like me as the awareness of the online analytics practice is much more wider, and it makes it easier for me to explain to friends, families, and people who aren’t familiar with web data.  It makes explaining and differentiating entry level usage of web data analysis practices much more easier than before (years ago).

At the same time, I feel like a lot of people in industry dealing with digital/web is becoming an expert in some ways, but there is still a big disconnect in the web data interpretation.  If you look at measures used in stock markets, a lot of people are probably familiar looking at and interpreting the company’s performance and the market conditions using commonly available measures.  Not surprising as it is part of our daily life that we get exposed to stock market performance.  Unlike those stock market metrics/indexes that existed for years, the majority of web data interpretation  is NOT common, despite name of the tools are becoming more familiar.  Even people aren’t sure of how visitors are being calculated right?! :)

Web metrics discussions and maturity level have gotten much better than years ago, but discussions on the streets relating to web data still has a lot of room to advance.  It definitely needs to get beyond “I use Omniture, oh we use Webtrends… we hired an analyst and we got him/her on training so we’re good to go… we use Radian 6…” to something like “we’re able to improve the business performance  by X because we learned from Z data and took immediate action by doing ABC”.  I learned that speaking in such language also motivates people to ask more questions, and it is really fun to promote the discussion to the next level in such ways.

In web analytics there are three major types of roles, and because of a lof of managers and executives aren’t sure of the differences, it really makes hiring complicated and even hard to find a qualified candidiate.  Even setting up the digital analytics team is such a weird event because online data is so mysterious to these managers and executives.

Implementation Specialist/Engineer: Usually a person managing the implementation of web analytics tools and maintains ongoing implementation changes to capture business relevant data.  Because it is a technical role, the person usually gets involved in tool evaluation, tag optimization, spec building, QA, and actively involved in change management in dev process.

Reporting Analyst: Usually has the expertise to work with different interface of various tools to pull data and analyze for key stakeholders in the company.  This person may be involved in building scorecards, dashboards, build charts/graphs, specs for BI solutions, etc.  Great reporting analyst should have enough technical skills to be platform agnostic.  In other words, do get the reporting and analysis done, he/she should be have SQL skills, and other technical skill sets to model various data and make sense of it.  This role has the opportunity to become a Business Analyst and cross-function with BI (business intelligence) team to get web analytics data integrated with corporate BI reporting environment.

Analyst: This role requires to have 360 view beyond web site data and has the business accumen to make sense of the web data, and drive insights to impact the business bottom line.  Has the communication/people skills to work with engineers and non-techy people.  This role requires connecting the dots between business questions and insights, and able to tell a story with the data.  This analyst should have the ability to understand and analyze various data ranging from competitive, qualitative, social media, financial, macro economic data, A/B and MVT tests, etc.

In my view, these roles are pretty clear, but in reality, from a lof companies’ perspective, they’re not aware of the differences in these roles.  Companies are trying to hire three types of web anlaytics experts in one package.  Shame on these companies and managers… That is why many analysts are required to do more than expected.   A lot of people who wants to be an analyst may get caught becoming a reporting squirrel, implementation/tagging expert when they should have been helping out companies by providing learnings and insights.

The role of web anlaytics analyst is not just one.  Companies and businesses should be clear about what kind of web analytics expert they need to make positive impact to their business.  If need a hybrid role who could do all of it, then set appropriate expectations for this role and make clear of what is required from this analyst.  Don’t hire a person who could do everything and expect to do everything with web data.  That is unhealthy for both the company and the analyst’s career.

A lot of A-class analyst I know got well rounded background in all of the skills and experience, but they were able to articulate their role/goals/objective during their career in different phases, and able to set proper web analytics analyst’s expectations and evangelize digital analytics practices into company culture.  That’s A-class to me.

Going back to my earlier discussion, I feel that many marketers are becoming (or believing they are or can do) reporting analysis because a lot of online data are becoming easily available to anybody.  That is true, and I’m not arguing rather that is a good or bad thing.  I’m simply thinking any analysts (especially in online world) would need to think hard, and on a regular basis iterate your output and the value you give as an analyst, especially if you’re getting paid to be one.  You need to understand clearly how you fit in within the corporate structure (hub & spoke, centralized, de-centralized, etc.), and making sure you’re outputting more with relevance to the business than general folks who are analytically savvy.

Great read and my references:

Most companies organize in “Hub and Spoke”

Web Analytics Career Guide: From Zero To Hero In Five Steps!

Are you doing Web Reporting or Web Analytics

3 Roles in Web Analytics