In 5 or 10 years from now, where do you see yourself?

The subject of this post is likely something you were asked at least once. It’s a frequent job interview question, or one you get asked when doing annual reviews with your manager.

I was asked this questions at least a dozen times over the past 25 years.

My answer has always been the same – clear and simple:

“I want to be recognized for my contribution.”

Tutoring the UBC Award of Achievement in Digital Analytics

I was seeing it coming, but now I don't have much choice. I'm stepping down from my role as a tutor of the UBC Award of Achievement in Digital Analytics. When I started tutoring in 2007 I had more time on my hand and was freelance. I could count on UBC as a stable baseline revenue - but I never taught for the money - you know how passionate I am!

I truly enjoy teaching and sharing my knowledge. Honestly, it's a bit of egoism too... I learn so much myself from the students!

A thousand students, almost fifty classes later, things have changed and I find myself solicited for other professional activities; I spoke social media analytics at George Masson University, will talk about Business Analytics at UTennessee and Big Data at the Council of IT Executives of the Conference Board of Canada and others. As you might know, I'm also teaching a graduate class on the topic of analytics at Laval University and I have also recently joined the advisory board of the web analytics program at McMaster University. And of course, there's always the online analytics maturity workshop I'm doing jointly with eMetrics.

All in all, that's a lot! It has been a great five years. The UBC program undergone some revisions and I heard enrolments are good. Pioneers and industry veterans like Jim Sterne and Jim Novo helped develop the academic offering where nothing existing. The UBC team did a great job and has always been very supportive and helpful - they paved the way to thousands of people who wanted to learn about web analytics. It's great to see there are now many more offerings for those who wants to learn about digital analytics. I am humbled to have been part of the UBC adventure for a little while!

My greatest reward comes from comments like those:

This class was one of the best online course experience that I have ever had. I have taken a lot of online courses. Stephane was just terrific. 

Excellent Tutor. Smart, insightful, very responsive! Thank you!! 

Stephane was my tutor during my first course with UBC-WA, knowing someone prior helps. And it did. I should repeat in this course too... He is a great guy. And an amazing teacher too. 

The tutor. Stephane Hamel was great! 

This way the best course so far of all 3 classes I have taken. Both in content and in tutor. 

This instructor was the best I've had so far. He didn't just do the minimum. He continually tried to have discussion topics available and continually encouraged students to join them.

...and many, many more like those...

Thank you!

Stephane Hamel web analytics speaker schedule (fall 2011)

Just before taking some time off this summer, I wanted to share my fall conference schedule - as I like to say, meeting face to face is certainly one of the best social media outcomes! Come to one of my sessions, workshops or just grab me at a break and say hello!

• X Change 2011 - Sep 12-15, San Diego
  
  • Huddle leader: we'll look at the challenges, pitfalls and reasons why so many organizations are struggling to develop a data-driven culture. What can we learn from other disciplines? Chime in, learn what your peers went through and share your best tips to bring the best of online digital measurement to your organization and clients.
  
  
  
• eMetrics Stockholm - Sep 19-20
  Get 15% off! INUSEINSIGHTS011
  
  • Keynote: Measuring Your Organisation's Web Analytics Maturity
  
  
  
• Internet Marketing Conference Vancouver - Oct 3-4
  Get 15% off! SPEAKIMCVAN11
  
  • Session: Assessing your Digital Marketing Analytics Capabilities and What To Do About It!
  
  
  
• Google Analytics Users' Great Event (GAUGE), New-York, Oct. 17th
• Keynote: "GA in the marketplace" (preliminary)
• eMetrics New York - Oct 17-21
  
  • Workshop: Roadmap to Digital Analytics Success - full day workshop!
  • Session: Measuring your Digital Analytics Maturity - missed the workshop? Get a sneak peek! Popular session and amongst top rated at previous eMetrics!
  • Session: KPI Clinic, the doctors are in - one of the top rated session is back by popular demand - lots of fun with June Li and Angie Brown.
  • Don't miss the presentation from Alex Langshur, one of our Senior Partners, about Government and non-ecommerce metrics
  
  
  
• Salon Business Intelligence Montreal - Nov 8
• eMetrics London - Nov 30-Dec 1
  
  • Session & workshop
  
  
  
• Google Seminar for Success - Montréal - Dec 5-9
  
  • Google AdWords (presented by Alex Langshur)
  • Google Web Analytics (presented by Stéphane Hamel)

Now blogging at Cardinal Path

After nearly 10 years and over 500 posts you will notice some silence at blog.immeria.net as I move things over to cardinalpath.com/blog.


The older posts will remain here, but please head over Cardinal Path to read my latest posts.

In your opinion, what's the right strategy in such a case? Please vote & comment.

What should I do about this blog?

Cardinal Path announce key addition: me!

The recent announcement of a merger between Webshare, PublicInsite and VKI Studios was received very positively – Cardinal Path is destined to become the leading authority in the online digital measurement  space. Over the past couple of years I had the pleasure to discuss and work with both VKI Studios and Public Insite - John Hossack and Alex Langshur - two organizations and two persons I have utmost respect for. I valued the opportunities to work with them while enjoying the “independent thought leader” status; but now is the time for me to reconsider my role.

As of April 20th, I'm officially taking on the job of Director, Strategic Services for Cardinal Path. My role will be to push the envelope - tackle complex issues and challenges while bringing the most optimal and realistic solutions to make online digital measurement easier and more beneficial to our clients.

Alex Langshur, Cardinal Path co-founder and senior partner said "Adding Stéphane to our team solidifies Cardinal Path’s market position as a leading pure play web analytics and digital marketing firm. We’re assembling a group of thought leaders with deep experience across a variety of marketing verticals and we’re excited about what they can accomplish together for our clients."

Everyone I talked to were thrilled by the news. I'm very excited to join a team of unprecedented expertise  and profesionalism with a unique presence across North America.

More info:

• "Cardinal Path announces another key addition to its growing team of digital analytics and online marketing specialists".
• "Stéphane Hamel joins Cardinal Path"

What is one person impact on the web analytics community?

I especially enjoyed reading Kevin Hillstrom article this morning: "Hashtag Analytics: Removing a Member of the Community". Not only because Kevin is one of the top marketing analyst and writes great and useful articles, but especially because I was the subject of an experiment in the small Twitter #measure community.

What is the significance of "2%"?

I'm not sure which is most disturbing to me "fine young man" or "about 2% of the community no longer participates".

I think Kevin analysis is robust when it comes to the small #measure community on Twitter. However, it's also a bit disturbing to me...

• 2%: is it a low or high community impact? It's hard to tell without some benchmarking
• there is no "multiplicity" aspect to the analysis; it doesn't account for any other activities but Twitter.

It's not about me, it's about the community

When Eric Peterson mentioned several times "It’s not about you, it’s about the community..." on Twitter and in a blog post, there were some subtle messages that ended up creating some level of discomfort and misunderstanding in the community. Myself included.

First, we have to wonder what is the "web analytics community"? Is it the Twituniverse? Is it only what happens online and is visible to most? Kevin analysis doesn't account for the non-twitter activities that might be contributing even more to the growth of our industry. Once we understand this limit we can better appreciate the quality of his work.

For example, I salute Eric willingness to recognize others contributions in our community and I was sincerely touched when he said Stéphane "brings an enthusiasm to his work in the web analytics community that few can match and so I appreciate his passion". The recent initiative from Jason Thompson to help bring water to local communities in need - although it has little to do with our web analytics community - is a great cause and several people in the #measure community were happy to contribute. This exemplifies a community of interest that extends toward other causes and important subject matters.

What do I (and you) want from the community?

It's not about "me", but it is certainly about a passion I have for what I do. In "The best promotion I never got: My new year’s resolution advice", Rommil Sandiago puts it this way:

• I want to make my mark
• I want to be recognized for my efforts
• I seek to not only challenge the status-quo but achieve results in doing so
• But most importantly, I want to be trusted with something strategically important

Regardless of our experience and how involved we are in the community I think most of us are motivated by a sense of accomplishment. At least for me, accomplishment is a much stronger motivator than money!

Accomplishments: personal

While I was enjoying a great job with very good compensation, I still wanted to accomplish something more. One of the key accomplishment of my career was to take online classes to do an eBusiness MBA while working, catering to my family and starting my own business. It took me six years to get my degree. Despite the fact I didn't have an undergraduate degree I ended up being twice on the honor roll - and I'm now teaching a graduate class on web analytics which I'm especially proud of.

Make a mark; be recognized; challenge status-quo and shift toward a more strategic role.

Accomplishments: for myself, for the community

Helping the "community" can take different shapes and forms - be it our little #measure community, raising money to provide water in poor countries as Jason did, or being a volunteer medical first responder - as I did - but that's not the point... Here are some of the personal accomplishments I'm proud of, most of which had an impact on the web analytics community:

• Web Analytics Solution Profiler: I pioneered the first true "in context" QA tool for web analytics in 2006. Since then, other products have emerged, be it tools like Ghostery which allows you to block web analytics tools or ObservePoint which came out and offered a slightly different approach. Note that WASP is now fully owned by iPerceptions. Maybe, in some ways, I have contributed to an increased awareness of the importance of tagging quality and made a little step toward Tag Management Systems - thus my interest and recent announcement of my involvement with TagMan.
• Online Analytics Maturity Model: see the little story behind the Online Analytics Maturity Model.
• gaAddons: enhancements for Google Analytics, is more recent and is gaining great momentum.
• Web Analytics Association: I've been deeply involved with the WAA - to the extent of publicly taking a stance when folks where bashing it (think member value, globalization and Certification). Volunteering on a number of committees like Education and Certification. Spending two years on the Board and as Treasurer and countless hours doing volunteer work "behind the scene".
• Web Analysts Without Borders: Adam Laughlin, myself and a bunch of volunteers gave their time to literally become team members of SaveTheChildren.org.
• UBC Award of Achievement in Web Analytics: over the years, I have tutored over 650 students and the feedback is always very positive. Students likes the fact I'm going beyond the course content and share my experience, tips & tricks, and like my teaching style.
• ULaval MRK-6005 web analytics, graduate level class: this is another way of getting involved in the community. I could spend more time consulting - it would be much more profitable - but teaching isn't just about sharing my knowledge, it's also an amazing way for me to continue to learn. Also, as part of the learning process, we helped the Sainte-Justine UHC Foundation.
• Web Analytics Wednesdays local meetups: I started doing Web Analytics Wednesday in 2006 but eventually realized the WAW solution wasn't right for me: it was in English while my audience is French, I could as well find local sponsors and email members in my community directly.
• Web Analytics Canada - Québec LinkedIn Group: I created the group about a week ago and it's already over 100 members strong. A small step toward an official WAA Chapter! This is in addition to the 400+ subscribers to my "Analytique Web au Québec" newsletter.
• eMetrics and other conferences: with San Francisco and Toronto coming up, it will be my 15th time speaking at eMetrics. Being part of the community also means I invested time & money to get there, share and learn.

Parting thoughts

In this day and age of social media and ease of getting all kinds of metrics it's easy to fall for popularity contests and boast ourselves of being among the top in any given industry. At the end of the day, when finally getting to bed after a long day of work, can we look back and feel we've accomplished something useful and positive for ourselves, our family and our community?

No metric will tell you the answer.

Interview on OAMM, the WAA and gaAddons

(if you don't see the video above, please visit the blog page directly)

Daniel Waisberg interviewed me for his great marketing measurement and optimization site, Online Behavior while we were at the eMetrics Marketing Optimization Summit – Washington DC, 2010.

1:50 - I speak about the Online Analytics Maturity Model, what I've been working on for years in order to help companies to succeed in Web Analytics. The model is aimed at sparking discussions and raise awareness. A paper is available and the self assessment tool is a great way to evaluate your strengths and weaknesses.

3:50 - I provided my perspective and some tips on Web Analytics consulting, both for external consultants and for Analysts inside a company that need to interact with multiple teams. The major takeaway is my belief that our expertise is evolving toward business analysis and business intelligence: answering the needs to understand and optimize online business processes (beyond marketing) and the obvious need to look at more than clickstream data.

6:00 - My role as a director of the Web Analytics Association and the Get - what you can get as a member of the association, Do - what you can offer to the community, and Be - what you can become: better educated about web analytics, become a Certified analyst, become a speaker, etc. This strategy was discussed at our last Board meeting.

8:15 - And I concluded with some info about my latest project, gaAddons: a collection of useful enhancements to improve the default Google Analytics implementation.

Thanks again to Daniel for the opportunity, you can watch more eMetrics Summit videos in the dedicated channel. I will be speaking about the Online Analytics Maturity Model again at eMetrics Toronto and San-Francisco, and maybe Paris and London (hint, hint - bug Jim Sterne & Mattew Finlay to get me there!). I just confirmed my presence at the Click Summit in Charlotte, NC, April 14-15. See the complete speaking appearance list. The schedule for spring 2011 is getting loaded but I'm open to other speaking opportunities.

Would you like me on your team?

I've been doing analysis for over 20 years - ok, I'm cheating, I started in computer science deciphering business requirements and turning them into solutions involving databases - and as you can tell from my blog posts/tweets/speeches/gaAddons/etc. I'm just a tad passionate about what I do!

The only regret I have is there is only one of me (my wife would say it's not a bad thing!). I am frequently approached with fascinating consulting/employment opportunities around web analytics, online maturity, dashboard creation, implementation challenges - but I am often forced to miss out on working with great companies because there are only twenty four hours in a day. The challenge I face, similar to many of you, is that too much of my time is spent on tasks that have lower value  – tagging, data exports, creating reports, writing recommendations – leaving less time for critical work in strategic planning and helping to inform the business.

I have previously mentioned my relationship with Napkyn, where I currently sit on the advisory board. In the last several months I have tightened the relationship with Napkyn, referring a few of my contacts into the managed web analyst program. I have seen the following things happen:

• Faster impact through ongoing analysis and performance dashboarding, both to the analyst and the executive.
• An organic increase in online analytics maturity. Ongoing analyst support and executive dashboard support allows the entire organization to take next steps around strategy, tools and alignment.
• I can help more organizations. Having the Napkyn analysts providing day to day web analysis work means I can be continually involved in the strategic and ongoing online maturity evolution, allowing me the ability to work with more companies and add maximum value.

I am looking forward to working with many more great organizations by leveraging the managed analysis services of Napkyn. If you would be interested in bringing more analysts into your team, let me know!

PS. In order to kickstart this great collaboration, Napkyn has agreed to create a custom price for the first few I will refer them. Contact me if you want more detail.

Excuse the dust...

July 1st: a strange tradition in Québec, and it's not Canada day (similar to 4th of July in the US) - our "distinct" culture isn't too keen on celebrating it. No, I'm talking about the big moving day!

Fulfilling a dream

I'm not moving yet... but getting closer to a lifelong dream. Sitting on the St-Lawrence river, 15 minutes away from Québec-city, Île d'Orléans is described as a "microcosm of traditional Quebec and the birthplace of francophones in North America".

Explorer Jacques Cartier called the verdant spot the Island of Bacchus when he sighted it in 1535. The Indians had long referred to it as the Enchanted Place. Both names do justice to Ile d'Orleans, which Cartier later renamed in honor of the Duke of Orleans, the son of the King of France.

I'm in the process of purchasing a house in Ste-Pétronille, located at the tip of the island. Built around 1815, the charming spot sits on a 20,000 square foot lot surrounded by forest, gardens and other historical houses. The very well preserved house isn't big and was built in the pure traditional style: 35x24 two story timber frame with an annex. The surrounding is just amazing!

Perspective

Some people find it awkward I can be so involved in the modern, online world and be interested in history and countryside at the same time.

Maybe it's something that can't be explained!

The only perspective I can offer is that of balance between work and life, between light-speed of the net and growth of a hundred years old tree, taking care of a house dating back before my grand-grand-parents while improving a website which lifespan is counted in months.

Web Analytics Maturity Model Q&A

This post is a translation/adaptation of 
Questions à Stéphane Hamel, concepteur du "Web Analytics Maturity Model" (WAMM), where I was interviewed by Nicolas Malo.
---
Stéphane Hamel is a leading voice for Web Analytics in North America and has recently published the Web Analytics Maturity Model (WAMM). The WAMM is the result of an 18 months study conducted as an MBA project at Université Laval in Québec-city. Stéphane is also a member of the board of the Web Analytics Association. As part of his European tour of the "Roadmap to online analytics success" he will be in Lille, France on March 18th and 19th (registration details for Lille are available on Hub'Sales site, other locations for the workshop are listed on the WAMM page).

Nicolas Malo: Bonjour Stéphane. Can you explain what is the WAMM for the uninitiated?

Stéphane Hamel : I love acronyms! Because I have extensive experience in e-business and measuring online performance, as an online tutor to UBC's Award of Achievement in Web Analytics and frequent conference speaker, Laval University suggested my final project for Master in Electronic Business Management (MBA ) be the creation of a full-semester, graduate level course on the topic of web analytics. I quickly realised such a course could not be a traditional approach of covering basic concepts or how to implement and use popular web analytics solutions. My practitioner and consulting experience with several clients as well as looking at the state of the industry also thought me there was obviously something wrong with the traditional approach since a majority of companies could not achieve the expected results. At the same time, throught years of MBA studies, it was clear companies were faced with many other difficult challenges. This led to a position that web analytics is primarily based on disciplines that have existed for a long time and that it can be easier.

Hence the essential questions: What are the success factors of web analytics? What are the critical process areas supporting such a success? How to determine if a company is on the right track to succeed, or rather at high risk of failing?

The WAMM proposes a maturity model based on Critical Success Factors leading to the effective use of analytics to make informed decisions and optimize online business processes.

Nicolas Malo: How did you come to the conclusion that it was necessary to formalize a model of maturity in Web Analytics?

Stéphane Hamel: Some of my colleagues in the industry doubt the merits of a maturity model on the basis that each company is so different that models simply do not work. A model is not a dogma, a model is not perfect ... for example, meteorological models can hardly predict the weekend weather! Yet, in most cases, they are very useful and continue to evolve to become more accurate. A model is a simplified representation of a more complex reality. What is included stems from hypothesis and observations of what we understand of a concept. It evolves in response to advancements and development of new theories, deeper understanding and validation in the field.

The element of "maturity" in the model describes the essential elements and relationship of various domains of expertise to gradually move from a rather chaotic and improvised approach to a mature, structured and disciplined one.

One of the major benefit of a maturity model is to spark discussion and reflection within the organization. It allows the team to put objectives against the current situation and act accordingly. Once convinced of the merits of measuring performance of its activities, the organization needs a road map to avoid the pitfalls that so many others before them have encountered.

Nicolas Malo: Is it just an academic exercise or you leveraged real life experience to define the different dimensions?
Stéphane Hamel: The academic side brought a structure and disciplined approach, but the WAMM is primarily a field study. When attending conferences, mostly in the United States, I was always a bit disappointed to hear great success stories then come back to reality and realize we were so archaic compared to the Amazon, eBay, Expedia, Dell and others flag ship.

I have the pleasure of working with several clients of various sizes and verticals in Quebec, Canada and abroad: automotive, insurance and finance, retail, travel, non-profit, etc. Each of them exhibit specific characteristics, yet they face very similar challenges when it comes to web analytics. The concept of maturity levels arose from a desire to understand the commonalities of those situations.

Key process areas, or dimensions, stems from the study of several models offered by various industry experts and vendors, other related fields such as business analysis and data warehousing, as well as academic concepts encountered throughout the MBA studies.

Nicolas Malo: If there was one strong idea to retain from WAMM, what would it be?

Stéphane Hamel: The first key process area, the one that will have the strongest influence on the success of your web analytics initiatives, is the management, governance and the degree of adoption of analytical practices in the organization. In second place comes the way objectives are defined and the scope of intervention. While it is interesting to debate about the tools and their multitudes of features, they actually have very little impact on success. Yet, such findings are not new and have been demonstrated numerous times in the past...

Nicolas Malo: You recently announced that you're writing a book out of the WAMM project. Can you tell us more?

Stéphane Hamel: The whole study project is quite big and I had to extract a summary in order to solicit feedback from the web analytics community. I invite you to take a look at immeria.net/wamm to download the paper and provide feedback. My original plan, to design a full-semester, graduate level course for Université Laval, is available since January under the name "MRK-6005 - Analytiques Web". There are many books on the topic of web analytics, but few (none?) academic book with a the typical structure of text books. Unfortunately, it will take a while to write, but the course structure and material is complete, the workshop is ready and has already taken place in Ottawa, and soon in Montreal (Feb 10th).

Nicolas Malo : Thank you Stéphane for this interview! A final word?

Stéphane Hamel: Web analytics is a relatively young and in this regard, it often reminds me of the heyday of the early Web. The pace of innovation is impressive, but the most remarkable aspect is probably the collaboration, mutual support and friendship that comes from our interest for web analytics. As I often say, "social media" is cool, but there is nothing like meeting people in person. Therefore I will be in Lille in March (as well as several other cities in Europe, Canada and the US)!

Note : I will actually be in Lille for the European tour of my workshop "Roadmap to online analytics success". I will also participate in a panel on the theme "making the right technological choices in web Analytics" at the Nord IT Days conference and one of the main speakers at the "Rendez-vous des Web Analytics" in Lille Thursday, March 18, 2010.

A nod to Joseph Carrabis: The unfulfilled promise of online analytics

<Side Note>

I'm not sure how I landed here.

• I had poor grades in high-school.
• The career adviser said I shouldn't apply in computer science - I had no chance. I did anyway.
• I loved computer science. I was a hacker - yes, it was me who shut down the mainframe to get exclusive access to finish my homework...
• In 1986 I had to pick an internship. I picked an obscure Unix/C research project with University of Montreal while my classmates headed for IBM/Cobol and Fortran in banks and insurance - I was crazy!
• "Unix will die" they said, "C will never pick up". But I was on the Internet in 1986 - before the Web ever existed.
• Work - Unix sys-admin and Oracle DBA. Then HTTP & Mosaic - it was natural.
• Logs, like any other computer system. Unix scripts to automate; soon enough the data was in Oracle.
• Web development, web strategies, ebusiness, measurement & optimization.
• Needed more business & management credibility - I did my MBA.
  

It's been over 20 years. I'm still a child in a candy store.

< End of side note >

The chasm

The Internet was built on collaboration, the early days of the Web were, as  is  was web analytics. The web analytics industry is at a crossroad. Vendors are fighting for a share of the pie, competing for the latest cool feature while trying to capture as much profits as possible from their clients and locking them down along the way. Newbies are flocking to the field, just as it was some time ago for the Web - anyone and everyone is an expert. Self proclaimed gurus ego are inflating exponentially with the number of "friends" they have.

We are craftsman. We improvise custom solutions to old problems - optimizing processes, measuring success, managing change and politics. We pride among ourselves for finding new clever ways of measuring social media and inventing new metrics nobody else understands when we can't even get five minutes with senior managers to improve their business.

We go at conferences, gang in discussion forums and Twitter to convince ourselves we are so right - we know what's wrong and how to solve it. The "outsiders" can't understand, they don't get it - so we think.

The unfulfilled promise of online analytics

Joseph Carrabis "The Unfulfilled Promise of Online Analytics - Part 1" was thought provoking and several people contributed to the conversation - it's a shame some people retracted or didn't even participate. Joseph, with his unique style and outsider perspective, published the second part. Anyone in the analytics space should read it - vendors and gurus must read it - and comment.

Joseph takes great care in being respectful and always ask for permission and opinion before quoting or talking about someone. As soon as I got his email I took a glimpse at it - thinking I would get back to it later... then I stopped everything else and read the whole thing.

There are several gems in his document:

• Please remove my comment
  It takes a lot of honesty and tact to talk about those who requested their comments be removed...shame on them for a) not standing by their opinion and/or b) not accepting they might be wrong.
  
• The Setup to Fail Syndrome
  "There is also a need to recognize what's achievable when (so people aren't set up to fail) and how to promote faster adoption of an agenda". It reminds me of a book I read: "The setup to fail syndrome", by Manzoni and Barsoux. I read that when, at a particular job, I went from "fame" to "looser" because the context changed (got a new boss). Success is also (mostly?!) a matter of context...
• I'm playing, don't bug me
  "Management repeatedly asking difficult to solve questions results in they're being ignored by analysts until the final results are in. By that time both question and answer are irrelevant to a tactical business decision".
  "This means such institutions - which require experienced practitioners to survive - will only be able to afford low quality/low experienced practitioners to help them. This can be likened to a naval gunnery axiom: "The farther one is from a target, either the larger the shell or the better the targeting mechanism" and companies will opt for larger shells (poorly defined efforts) rather than better targeting mechanisms (experienced practitioners)." 
• Let's find something cool to do
  "We're suppose to be solving problems. But I can't figure out what problems we're suppose to solve."
• Act quickly, think strategically
  I loved the prognosis/diagnosis example and "Investigation takes time and only certain businesses can afford time because unless the science is working at overcoming a business obstacle, it's a cost, not a profit."

A maturity model

I'm grateful Joseph mentioned and acknowledged the usefulness of my work on the Web Analytics Maturity Model to advance the field. When Jim Sterne introduced me during the WAA annual members meeting he said "I don't know how to present Stéphane", referring to the fact I have a technical background and recently completed my MBA... but mostly, I guess, because of my passion for the field and my willingness to share. Others have publicly or privately acknowledge my work and provided honest feedback - positive or not. Ultimately, there is no evolution without collaboration.

I asked Stephane if he believed WAMM provided a metricizable solution with universally agreed to objective measures (I told Stephane that I wasn’t grasping how WAMM becomes an "x + y = z" type of tool and asked if I’d missed something). Stephane replied "…no, you haven’t missed anything, because it is NOT a x+y=z magical/universal formula, that’s not the goal. The utmost goal is to enable change, facilitate discussion, and it’s not ‘black magic’. A formula would imply there is some kind of recipe to success. Just like we can admire Amazon or Google success and could in theory replicate everything they do, you simply can’t replicate the brains working there – thus, I think there is a limit to applying a formula (or ‘brain power’ is a huge randomized value in the formula)."

Then there are "maturity model atheists" - those "who've been there, done that"... Such positions gives very little room for discussion. My feeling is they are standing so high on their pedestal, busy working with the top organizations, that they've lost empathy with those struggling to make things happen - at their scale and with the capacity they have.
One key element to remember is "you can excel along any axis... but to be successful you need to excel evenly along all axes... so far three matrix elements - time, a lack of leadership and realism - have been identified".

"So there better be a 'right way to do it', at least as far as delivering results and being understood are concerned, because without that the industry - more accurately, the practitioners - are lost". I hope we will find this way together, honestly collaborating and being open minded, because I love what I do.

If we don't? "any industry that succumbs to promise and hype will ultimately end in disappointment".

iPerceptions + WASP: my take

I'm really proud and happy to announce iPerceptions has acquired the WASP product line and technology. You can read the official press release, but I also wanted to share some personal thoughts about what it means for me and for the 11,000 WASP users around the world.

Three years in the making

When I started working on WASP, around November of 2006, I was a part-time web analytics practitioner trying to solve, or at least simplify a real issue: how to check if our web analytics implementation was done correctly. I already had several years of experience implementating web analytics tools and knew how complex it was. What started as a proof of concept quickly became an interesting side project. One thing leading to another, a public beta was announced and in January 2009, a commercial product.

An unfulfilled need

Cookie deletion rate is a recurring topic; is it 3%, maybe 10%? It simply amazes me! The primary cause of poor analytics data isn't cookies, it's bad implementation... While you don't have much control over cookie deletion rate, you do have control over the site instrumentation (or you should!). In a study recently commissioned by Google (full PDF report), Forrester revealed the most important consideration factor for choosing a web analytics solution is "reliable data collection" (45%!). Yet, vendors generally do a very poor job at offering quality assurance tools.

Word of mouth kicked in, user base grew to over 11,000 worldwide, 150 tools detection and a  market predicted by Forrester to grow 17% for the next several years. Feedback, feature requests and constructive comments helped gradually tweak the product. There is still a long list of ideas and things to do, and as the market evolve, so will WASP. Alternatives are either too complex, unpractical, or too expensive. Clearly, WASP is answering a need: I have never seen a perfect implementation!

Always be learning

WASP has been an amazing learning experience. As most of you know, I did everything on my own, from development to marketing, commercialization and support. However, I was at a crossroad: do I want to become a product vendor, hire a bunch of people and grow the business, or remain true to the core reason why I wanted to become a freelance. I've been a strong advocate of web analytics, I love teaching & speaking at conferences (hear me at Infopresse in Montreal this Thursday, and at eMetrics Washington D.C. next week!) and my interests are for research & education. WASP is why I won the WAALTER award, and certainly a strong factor behind my election to the Web Analytics Association Board of Directors. I have other projects I want pursue; the Web Analytics Maturity Model, the concept of Just In Time Tagging and other crazy ideas to make web analytics easier.

My future and the future of WASP at iPerceptions

"Why iPerceptions?" you might ask. There were other offers, but iPerceptions is best positioned to bring WASP to the next level while remaining true to its original spirit: free trial, single user entry-base product up to enterprise level capabilities; wide range of products detection; closely listening to the Voice of Customer. They can  bring the expertise and manpower I couldn't.

The popularity of 4Q Online Survey also demonstrates their ability to bring innovative solutions to the market. As an independent thought leader and member of the iPerceptions Advisory Council, I will stay closely involved and help them with new and interesting applications that I'm sure will have profound implications for the analytics community.

Parting thoughts

Thanks to my "angel advisers" (you know who you are!) for your insights & recommendations. Your willingness to help is always deeply appreciated and I'm trying to "pay it forward" whenever I can. Thanks to you: web analysts, vendors, fellow bloggers and users of WASP!

I will keep an eye on WASP and help iPerceptions the best I can. In the meantime, and as always, I'm happy to hear your feedback!

Web analytics brain available! (for a fee)

Over the past couple of years I have been very involved in the web analytics community, tutoring the UBC Award of Achievement in Web Analytics, providing feedback on the Yahoo! Web Analytics forum, writing on my blog, answering a huge amount of emails, even providing free tools to make your web analytics life easier.

Brain juice

I've often said it: consulting is selling brain juice, and the amount of juice you can extract is scarce and valuable.

As much as I like to help out and collaborate whenever possible, my workload is constantly at a high level and my expertise is often being requested to give feedback on products or the market in general. Speaking at eMetrics and other conferences, my nomination to the WAA Board of Directors and the Web Analytics Association Leadership & Technical Excellence Recognition (WAALTER) award I recently received have significantly increased the number of requests I get. Being an independent, free spirited though leader, it just makes sense to realize what I’m selling is my knowledge, experience and expertise. I just can’t afford to spend a lot of time providing free advices and feedback...

Offer for agencies & vendors

Long story short, I have something to do in order to prioritize my work and maintain a level of professionalism and ethics with the people I'm working with:

• Retainer: We will define the scope and objectives of our collaboration and I will provide monthly feedback about your product, the market, social media & news, etc. A six month agreement and a fixed monthly fee will also garantee I won't play the same role with any of your competitors.
• Ad hoc: I will gladly work with you, provide feedback and information about your product or the market on an hourly basis. In this model, I can still work with any other partner, including competing ones.
• Package: With a minimal monthly agreement the hourly rates can be reduced.

Don't hesitate to contact me if you would like to discuss this offer privately.

WASP receives WAALTER Award at eMetrics

Today, at the eMetrics Marketing Optimization Summit being held in San Jose, I received the first ever WAALTER Award for my work on the Web Analytics Solution Profiler (WASP). The Web Analytics Association Leadership and Technical Excellent Recognition (WAALTER) award "recognize companies and individuals who are leaders and innovators in the field of web analytics. The objective is to encourage creative and innovative projects or initiatives that embody the web analytics industry’s best practices."

This prestigious price means a lot to me; it's not only a peer recognition, but also a strong encouragement to continue my work on WASP. Combined with my election on the WAA Board of Directors, it highlights my involvement and strong commitment to the Web Analytics Association's role as an industry voice.

I also wants to congratulates Predicta, who won the WAALTER award in the corporate category, and thank the judges who took the time to evalute the submitted entries and saw the value of WASP.

MindMeld: from Omniture Summit to eMetrics San Jose

The first ever MindMeld was an invitation-only event held at the Omniture Summit 2009. I had the chance to be invited by Matt Langie, Senior Director of Product Marketing for Omniture. Under the coordination of John Lovett (Forrester Research) and Jim Sterne (WAA and eMetrics), we formed into roundtable groups to discuss hot topics of the day.

MindMeld is an interactive discussion forum of industry peers designed to foster review, debate, and offer proposed resolutions to issues inhibiting industry growth.

Social Media impact & measurement

I was pleased to be a session leader for social measurement. With representatives from iTunes, Warner Music, Norwegian Cruise Line, Best Buy and Brian Watkins (aka @omniture on Twitter), the session was broken down into three main blocks of about an hour each:

• scoping and establishing the breath of discussion,
• identify critical events, technologies and necessary actions
• report key takeaways, resolutions and call to action (from an individual perspective, for Omniture and the industry as a whole)

The video of our takeaways is now available on the YouTube channel WAMindmeld. Mine is shown bellow:

MindMeld at eMetrics: the conversation continues

I'm glad to be part of it again, but now, as Jim puts it "that was only the beginning. Now, it's time to take action." The topic will be "What needs to happen to move the industry forward?", nothing less. In my new duties as one of the member of the Web Analytics Association Board of Directors, I guess this will be on my mind pretty much all the time!

Talking about eMetrics, I will be speaking twice, first about the web analytics maturity model I have developed and put the test (also check this post), and a second time on a panel about "The Softer Side of Metrics - Is it Hot in Here or is it Just Me?" with my friends Peterson and Jonathan Levitt. Jonathan will talk about 4Q and I will cover WASP.

Web Analytics Association Board of Directors

It's official: I've been elected to the Web Analytics Association Board of Directors. I want to thank everyone who participated in the election process, congratulate newly elected board members and extend my respects to all the very talented people who ran for a position.

What's a director anyway?

Beyond boasting the title of "director", responsibilities includes financial and legal aspects of a non-profit organization. But more importantly (to me anyway), it is to contribute to the development of programs and activities that are consistent with the mission of the WAA. So, you might ask, what is the mission of the WAA?

The Web Analytics Association leads and supports the members by providing quality education, developing standards and best practices, conducting research and advocating for issues that advance the industry.

There is a lot of work to do if we want to accomplish everything that's in the above phrase. But as with any complex endeavor - such as bringing the web analytics culture to an organization and succeeding at it! - we can define SMART objectives and accomplish one step at a time toward the larger goal.

Listening to the Voice of Customer: you!

I want to invite you to get in touch with me if you have opinions & ideas about the WAA and how we can serve you. I already have a couple of ideas, and some of you already expressed very good points in private emails. This will be a great experience for me, I'm sure there will be challenges and lots of work to do, and my commitment is to do my best to get closer to the spirit of the WAA mission statement.

Why WASP isn't free

The good

I'm receiving tons of positive feedback about WASP, the community of over 10,000 users is providing great ideas and suggestions which I'm carefully taking into consideration. I'm very proud of this tool. I've spent countless nights and weekends working on it over a period of 18 months.

But WASP isn't just the result of this hard work, it's also the culmination of over 20 years of experience ranging from development, system administration, DBA, web development, analytics, and about every aspects of launching a business.

The bad

Over the years I've been known to be very "verbal" about my opinions. I have matured and grown some (a lot!) of gray hair. I think my temper is much better than it was years ago, but when I receive something like this... it hurts:

My suggestion is to take WASP extension off your "Free Ressources" (sic) page, or perhaps change the name of that page.

It's a shame you no longer offer a free version that doesn't time-out since it's clearly the crawler that is the power-tool aimed at WDAs. We have a bunch of staff who every now-and-again need to check an Omniture variable or two to help in locating reports, but will never require a crawler.

Oh well, bon chance!

I wish I could talk to this person, who knows, maybe he or she will read this and get in touch?

Did you know?

Lots of people think there's a whole business behind WASP. In fact, it's the result of a single person's dedication and passion for web analytics: me! I'm doing a mix of consulting, teaching and developing WASP because I like what I do, working 40, 50, 60 hours a week. I'm a strong advocate of sharing and collaboration. But I'm not stupid either.

My take

Here's what comes to mind:

• 20 minutes is plenty of time for occasional use and seeing if WASP is useful, clearly, this person wants to use WASP for professional purposes, and he or she is not alone, there's also a 'bunch of staff" using WASP...
  
• If $49 USD is too much for you, than stick to a manual method, use debuggers and proxies (the license of most of those tools isn't free, btw), or use the free Omniture JavaScript debugger
• WASP ROI is pretty straightforward: save time, eliminate non-value added activities, increase your knowledge. And that person tells me it's not worth 49$!? The crawler including in WASP Pro, at $499, is a tiny fraction of the cost of alternative solutions...
  

But most importantly

I'm not selling a software, I'm selling my knowledge.

If you use WASP and find it useful, please consider purchasing a license!

Stéphane Hamel for Web Analytics Association BoD!

Beyond stats, web sites and businesses, there are people. After all, some things don't change that much even after thousands of years. We still want to get around the campfire and listen to the sage, help the apprentice, be part of the group and make our mark. Maybe that's why, in essence, I'm running for the Web Analytics Association Board of Director.

Why I'm running for the WAA Board of Director

The Web Analytics Association provides quality education, develop standards and best practices, conduct research and advocate for issues that advance the industry. Behind those objectives there are thousands of members, some new to the industry, some more experienced. Just people like you and me who seek to help their employer or clients make more enlightened decisions, share with fellow WAA members, learn and advance their career in a fast paced and exciting field that take its roots from a vast number of professional expertise: marketing, statistics, web development, management, communication, design, usability just to name a few.

The voting period for the WAA 2009 Board of Directors election is now open. Votes will be accepted from now until 23:59 GMT (7:59 PM ET, 4:59 PM PT) on Friday, April 10, 2009.

Credit where credit is due!

I've been a member of the WAA since 2005, and from the get go, I felt something similar to my early days in the Web: collaboration and sharing, excitement, passion, vision, innovation in a fast paced industry where I could grow, learn, and leverage my experience and expertise. When I realized Jim Sterne was behind the WAA and eMetrics, I knew I wanted to be part of it. I had met Jim many, many years ago, in the days of the Internet World Conference, long before the Internet Bubble Burst and the current economic downturn. He was an inspiration: motivating, great speaker, very open to share and collaborate. He was very knowledgable about the Web and marketing and already pushing for measurement and accountability.

Since then I met so many great people it would be too long to list, be it Bryan Eisenberg, Brian Clifton, Avinash Kaushik, Bill Gassman, Joseph Carrabis, John Lovett, Gary Angel, Jim Novo, Bob Page, Judah Phillips and a slew of consultants, practitionners and vendors. Now, look at the profile of the people running for the WAA BoD: Anil Batra, René Deschamps Otamendi, Daniel Waisberg, Rachel Scotto, Jonathan Levitt, Matt Langie, Nicolas Babin. I personally met all of them through the WAA and eMetrics, and the choice is very hard: great people who love what they are doing and have a passion for it.

Pay it forward

In essence, "pay it forward" is how I see my implication in the field. That's why I love speaking at eMetrics, being a tutor for the UBC Award of Achievement in Web Analytics, why I'm blogging, Twittering and being very active on the Yahoo! Web Analytics Forum. It's why I've been organizing Web Analytics Wednesdays for over two years. It's also why I have developed the Web Analytics Solution Profiler (WASP): share my expertise and foster collaboration through the networking and great feedback I'm receiving out of it.

I had to chose a category for the election process. Am I a consultant, a vendor or a maybe more on the academic/research side? In face of the other great people in the consulting category, I don't know what the outcome will be, but the adventure is worth it, and I hope to get your vote!

Got interviewed at Sonicko.com

Jeff Lawrence at Sonicko.com interviewed me about WASP.

He said "WASP (Web Analytics Solution Profiler) is a web analyst and online marketers dream for providing validation of web analytics implementation as well as a quick reference guide to various analytics tools among other features."

Read the full interview at "Interview with Stephane Hamel Creator of WASP"

Running for the WAA Board of Director

My name:	Stéphane Hamel
My job title:	Web Analytics Advocate!
Company:	Immeria Consulting Services Inc.
Country:	Canada
Sector of activity:	Consulting/Academia
Complete profile:	http://linkedin.com/in/shamel

General background/bio

"Stéphane is a leading voice for web analytics, helping businesses and agencies understands the value of online optimization. He has been on both sides of the fence, client and agency, from small projects to complete ecosystem overhauls. Speaker at eMetrics Marketing Optimization Summit and other conferences, tutor for the award-winning UBC Award of Achievement in Web Analytics and Business Process Analysis classes, creator of the popular Web Analytics Solution Profiler (WASP) and blogger at immeria.net. Stéphane is an active member of the Web Analytics Association since 2005, coordinating regular web analytics networking and educational events in Québec, Canada."

You should vote for me because...

When I graduated from college over 20 years ago I was quickly introduced to the Unix and Internet culture of collaboration and sharing. SMTP and IRC gave way to HTTP - I mean - email and chat were baby steps toward what the Internet is today. My technical expertise eventually reached a point where I wanted to optimize more than bits & bites and I started to push for processes and business optimization.

From the early days of the Web, witness of the Bubble, Web 2.0 and the evolution from logs to tags, from IT to marketing and beyond, all of those contributed to my passion for analytics. My IT roots evolved into an exceptional skill for analysis and synthesis of complex issues. The Internet culture still fuel my desire to share and collaborate. While I hated speaking in front of the class in high school I now deeply enjoy speaking at conferences. Poor grades in high school turned into good ones in college and exceptional ones in my eBusiness MBA.

Experience, passion, innovation, vision, sharing & collaboration: that’s what I’m humbly offering to you and the Web Analytics Association.

Major contributions I will bring to Web Analytics Association and its membership

I’m focused on three areas of activities: consulting, education and research. I’m striving to help businesses and agencies understand the value of analytics by coaching them to climb the web analytics maturity ladder, by tutoring 3 of the 4 UBC Award of Achievement in Web Analytics classes and Introduction to Business Process Analysis, by being the organizer of Web Analytics Wednesdays in Montréal, speaking at eMetrics events and other conferences and by sharing my voice on my blog.
Research takes the form of various initiatives to foster communication among Web Analytics Association members; contributions includes the WAA search engine and the popular Web Analytics Solution Profiler (WASP), tackling the challenge of quality assurance of web analytics implementations. My interests lies in education & research: formalizing the science of web analytics and seeking ways to make it easier and better.

The years ahead will certainly be as interesting as the recent ones. Teaching a full semester on web analytics at Laval University (Québec city), exploring new management concepts and envisioning new tools to make web analytics easier are some of my goals. Collaboration and communication will remain at the center of those initiatives.

Where the Web Analytics Association should be in the next two years?

History repeats itself. The nascent web evolved into a marketing function and is now integrated within most aspects of the business. Web analytics also grew out of IT system logs to become a powerful tool for marketing optimization. We are now clearly at the crossroad of online business optimization and competing on analytics.

I think the WAA can do even more in the areas of education, standards and best practices. Issues of privacy are not going away, the competitive playing field is quickly evolving and there is still room for innovation. The current economic downturn is shacking the foundation. In a troubled economy, winners and losers are set apart by their capabilities to be bring original solutions, to deliver and act quickly based on factual information rather than succumb to panic and improvisation. The WAA is clearly on the winning side.

What is the biggest challenge facing the digital marketing industry?

We’ve certainly come a long way over the past couple of years. But now we need to move beyond marketing optimization to embrace business optimization. As Thomas Davenport puts it in his great book “Competing on Analytics”:

"three things are at the basis for competition: efficient and effective execution, smart decision making, and the ability to wring every last drop of value from business processes - all of which can be gained through sophisticated use of analytics"

This is where I think we’re headed.

If you are a member of the WAA, I hope you'll support my nomination. If you are not a member yet and you are involved in web analytics, what are you waiting for?

Sincerely yours,
Stéphane Hamel