How Do You Measure Success?

Here I am, finally returning to the topic I intended to write months ago. I am eager to delve into my experiences with problem solving, for me the true purpose of web analytics and how I measure my professional success. Ideally as a web analyst the client comes to me with a problem and wants my help to solve it. There are several requirement gathering steps I go through initially whether the problem is large or small. If I am familiar with the client than this step can be brief but if I’m working with a new or complex enterprise level client with more complicated problems, requirement gathering can take on nearly a life of its own.

Web analytics covers the data generated by traffic to and through the website. Clients’ come to me wanting to understand their visitor better so they can successfully meet their needs. This is the most common requirement. As a non-commerce site the client must determine what success means to them and how they intend to measure it. Success can be derived from as many avenues as there are events on the site.

A very common success indicator for an average non-commerce site is the downloading of a whitepaper. Through requirement gathering I consider all the touch points involved or possibly involved with that event. Each event has a stakeholder and understanding their perspective and needs is crucial. The size of the problem and the stakeholder’s requirements will determine the commitment necessary from the organization to support the process. My minimum requirements include a blessing on the project from the executive level. Without an executive level commitment for the problem solving activity there is no point to the exercise. The point of problem solving is to find the solution that will best meet the requirements of the problem, what then? Following through with the solution, obviously and that takes executive level commitment, all too often an impediment if not dealt with at the beginning of the problem solving process.