Scapegoating Analysts | Recognizing & Preventing A Bad Idea.

Here’s a sign that you’ve arrived as an Analyst or an Analytics team: At the first sign of failure reported by the data, most people blame you (Analyst/Data). Wear it as a badge of honor! It means your analysis has identified insights that are big enough, important enough, that the recipients get instantly worried. Ideally, […]

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Strategic Marketing Analytics: CMO Dashboards That Rock!

An extraordinary amount of time, effort, $$$ are spent on building dashboards/scorecards for CMOs… Yet, the end result, nearly always, is a useless data puke. It turns out boiling the ocean is hard. To build an effective big picture scorecard for the CMO, that is not data pukey, there are three crucial challenges that have […]

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Transform Data’s Impact: Pick The Right Success KPI!

Your analysis provides clear data that the campaign was a (glorious) failure. It could not be clearer. The KPI you chose for your brand campaign was Trust, it had a pre-set target of +5. The post-campaign analysis that compares performance across Test & Control cells shows that Trust did not move at all. (Suspiciously, there […]

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Winning With Data: Say No To Insights, Yes To Out-of-sights!

If there is one thing the universe agrees on, it is that you should just provide data… You should provide INSIGHTS!!! In the 807,150 (!) words I’ve written on this blog thus far, at least 400,000 have been dedicated to helping you find insights. In posts about advanced segmentation, in posts about how to build […]

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The Most Important Business KPIs. (Spoiler: Not Conversion Rate!)

I was reading a paper by a respected industry body that started by flagging head fake KPIs. I love that moniker, head fake. Likes. Sentiment/Comments. Shares. Yada, yada, yada. This is great. We can all use head fake metrics to calling out useless activity metrics. [I would add other head fake KPIs to the list: […]

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Increase Analytics Influence: Leverage Predictive Metrics!

Almost all metrics you currently use have one common thread: They are almost all backward-looking. If you want to deepen the influence of data in your organization – and your personal influence – 30% of your analytics efforts should be centered around the use of forward-looking metrics. Predictive metrics! But first, let’s take a small […]

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Cookies To Humans: Implications Of Identity Systems On Incentives!

A story where data is the hero, followed by two mind-challenging business-shifting ideas. At a previous employer customer service on the phone was a huge part of the operation. Qualitative surveys were giving the company a read that customers were unhappy with the service being provided. As bad customer service is a massive long-term cost […]

Cookies To Humans: Implications Of Identity Systems On Incentives! is a post from: Occam’s Razor by Avinash Kaushik

It’s Not The Ink, It’s The Think: 6 Effective Data Visualization Strategies

Ten years, and the 944,357 words, are proof that I love purposeful data, collecting it, pouring smart strategies into analyzing it, and using the insights identified to transform organizations. In the quest for that last important bit, I am insanely obsessive about 1. simplification and 2. pressing the right emotional buttons. The reasons are that […]

It’s Not The Ink, It’s The Think: 6 Effective Data Visualization Strategies is a post from: Occam’s Razor by Avinash Kaushik

Rock Analytics More: Obsess About Goals And Goal Values!

If you don’t have goals, you are not doing digital analytics. You are doing i am wasting earth’s precious oxygenalytics. Let’s back up. Let me start with a story. We were brain storming about the next clustseeer of coolness for Analytics, the conversation quickly went to what Analysts need to look at on a daily, […]

Rock Analytics More: Obsess About Goals And Goal Values! is a post from: Occam’s Razor by Avinash Kaushik

Excellent Analytics Tip #27: Chase Smart Calculated Metrics!

For the last decade (#omg!), I’ve consistently complained about a fundamental flaw in Web Analytics tools: They incentivize one night stands, rather than engagements matching customer-intent. This leads to owners of digital experiences (insanely) expecting all visitors to their websites to convert right away – anything less than that is a failure. Damn the intent […]

Excellent Analytics Tip #27: Chase Smart Calculated Metrics! is a post from: Occam’s Razor by Avinash Kaushik

Great Storytelling With Data: Visualize Simply And Focus Obsessively

The difference between a Reporting Squirrel and Analysis Ninja? Insights. As in, the former is in the business of providing data, the latter in the business of understanding the performance implied by the data. That understanding leads to insights about why the performance occurred, which leads to so what we should do. [Sidebar] I’m experimenting […]

Great Storytelling With Data: Visualize Simply And Focus Obsessively is a post from: Occam’s Razor by Avinash Kaushik

Speed, Focus, Smart Insights: 5 Google Analytics Custom Reports FTW!

Standard reports stink. Custom reports rock! If you are a regular reader of this blog, you are quite familiar with this sentiment. I’ve expressed it often. :) [Sidebar] I’m experimenting with sharing short stories via an insightful newsletter. I’d love for you to sign up: The Marketing Analytics Intersect. Thanks! [/Sidebar] The primary reason is […]

Speed, Focus, Smart Insights: 5 Google Analytics Custom Reports FTW! is a post from: Occam’s Razor by Avinash Kaushik

Smart Dashboard Modules: Insightful Dimensions And Best Metrics

My last post, perhaps provocatively, called for a reduction of data in executive dashboards (digital, online, offline). More English (IABI, specifically) would lead to a smarter understanding of performance, and of course glory for data practitioners. Here’s the post: Strategic & Tactical Dashboards: Best Practices, Examples. In the post Adil commented that he’s observed that […]

Smart Dashboard Modules: Insightful Dimensions And Best Metrics is a post from: Occam’s Razor by Avinash Kaushik

Digital Dashboards: Strategic & Tactical: Best Practices, Tips, Examples

I’m excited about the power of a well created dashboard. It is a thing of beauty and a source of immense joy. Oh, and of course a critical element for any company’s path to glory. Dashboards are every where, we will look at a lot of them in this post and they are all digital. […]

Digital Dashboards: Strategic & Tactical: Best Practices, Tips, Examples is a post from: Occam’s Razor by Avinash Kaushik

Excellent Analytics Tip #26: Every Critical Metric Should Have A BFF!

There is unlimited amount of data thrown off our digital existences. (Or to use sexy term du jour , we have big data!) Our leaders (companies, agencies, teams) have to deal with an incredibly complex landscape, and they don’t have enough time. The very natural outcomes is this ask of us: “Can you make it […]

Excellent Analytics Tip #26: Every Critical Metric Should Have A BFF! is a post from: Occam’s Razor by Avinash Kaushik

Best Metrics For Digital Marketing: Rock Your Own And Rent Strategies

In a world of infinite choice, the ability to pick critical few metrics to focus on is, well…, critical. It is the difference between plodding along, or winning big. But choosing what to focus on is extremely hard. You have to have a deeper understanding of the business, an expansive knowledge of what is possible […]

Best Metrics For Digital Marketing: Rock Your Own And Rent Strategies is a post from: Occam’s Razor by Avinash Kaushik

7 Data Presentation Tips: Think, Focus, Simplify, Calibrate, Visualize++

There are three elements to our “big data” efforts, or unhyped normal data efforts: Data Collection, Data Reporting, and Data Analysis. (More on that here: DC-DR-DA: A Simple Framework For Smarter Decisions .) We are all aware that the best companies in the world have an optimal DC-DR-DA allocation when it comes to time/money/people: 15%-20%-65%. […]

7 Data Presentation Tips: Think, Focus, Simplify, Calibrate, Visualize++ is a post from: Occam’s Razor by Avinash Kaushik

See-Think-Do: A Content, Marketing, Measurement Business Framework

The world does not need a new business framework. I get “About 269,000,000 results (0.25 seconds)” for business framework on Google today. But most of the frameworks available to us solve for divisional silos. For example AIDA is from the siloed lens of Marketing (and full disclosure, I humbly believe serves company’s own selfish perspective). […]

See-Think-Do: A Content, Marketing, Measurement Business Framework is a post from: Occam’s Razor by Avinash Kaushik

Excellent Analytics Tip #25: Decrapify Search, Social Compound Metrics

Everyone likes chasing big shiny objects all the time. What’s not to like. They are big. They are shiny. :) But a lot of progress in life comes from doing the everyday small things better. A small improvement, every single day, to move the ball a little more forward. A best practice I’ve developed is […]

Excellent Analytics Tip #25: Decrapify Search, Social Compound Metrics is a post from: Occam’s Razor by Avinash Kaushik

The Lean Analytics Cycle: Metrics > Hypothesis > Experiment > Act

This should not be news to you. To win in business you need to follow this process: Metrics > Hypothesis > Experiment > Act. Online, offline or nonline. Yet this structure rarely exists in companies. We are far too enamored with data collection and reporting the standard metrics we love because others love them because […]

The Lean Analytics Cycle: Metrics > Hypothesis > Experiment > Act is a post from: Occam’s Razor by Avinash Kaushik