Would be analysts, consultants, practitioners and vendors alike often reach out and ask for career advice, coaching, tips & tricks or my opinion of the market. I was lucky to get help, support and advices from
Avinash,
Bryan Eisenberg,
Jim Sterne,
Brian Clifton,
Joseph Carrabis and
John Hossack from
VKI Studios early on when I started
WASP so I'm happy to "pay it forward". I'm inclined to give a hand as long as it is reasonable - beyond that I'm happy to propose my
consulting services, play an advisory role or even defer to other agencies and consultants.
Sometimes I receive job offers, partnership opportunities or very interesting propositions. The answer is usually "thank you - but it took me over 20 years to get my freedom and I really enjoy it!". Plus, my position in the market is due in large part to this philosophy and independence - allowing me to work with many agencies and vendors.
Napkyn: outsourced professional digital analysis services
When
Jim Cain, founder, and
Nish Patel, first investor in
Napkyn, approached me about their new venture, they basically described what could very well be the best approach to web analytics for most organizations: outsourced professional digital analysis services.
There are many ways to
get started in web analytics but demand for skilled resources is far greater than availability. Napkyn brings the best aspects of both the consultant and employee approaches.
In short, the benefits of Napkyn are:
- Answer the need for experienced, skilled resources
- Reduce the time to recommendations & improve recommendations frequency
- You take care of your core business while Napkyn's take care of it's own: analytics
- The approach is cost effective - top skilled team at a very affordable price
You can review
Napkyn's Web Analysts program advantages. There are other huge advantages I see in their approach: a) practitioners/employees are often pulled in all directions and stuck in internal politics and b) agencies developing your websites can't be judge and jury by also doing your analytics - by outsourcing to Napkyn you get a rigorous, independent and unbiased alternative.
My - independent - role with Napkyn
I found the approach so compelling that I accepted to be on
Napkyn's Advisory Board. I'm happy to share my experience and work closely with the team to enhance their offering. In some cases, I had to pass on interesting consulting opportunities - I can now stay involved at a more strategic and supervisory role while Napkyn handles the bulk of the job. I have to say this is a non-exclusive agreement - I made sure to keep my independence and freedom - guaranteeing the best approach for each unique situation. Basically, Napkyn is another agency I'm happy to help out, work with and foster the continued improvement of the
Online Analytics Maturity Model.