I’ve been offering some of my measurement and site optimization advice to my good friend Kevin Winzeler and as the winter olympics in Vancouver came to a close, it reminded me of a photo shoot I was honored to be apart of. I wandered around with a camera, shooting some behind the scenes footage, which I compiled into this short video sequence.

Check out his site, he is an amazing photographer.

Taking timeout with the kids to make some custard.

In grad school, I took a class on the management style of Machiavelli’s The Prince vs. the management style of Lao Tzu’s Tao Te Ching.  I had always been drawn to Eastern philosophies and the words of the Tao spoke my language.  I was hooked.

Over the past couple of days, I have had numerous conversations with friends, colleagues, and industry experts, that have caused me to take pause and reevaluate the way I work, the way I interact with people, and my general principles in which I conduct business.

Yesterday, I was called out as being a “complainer” and I wondered if that was true, and if I was really adding any value to my industry or if my opinions even mattered at all.  And then I thought, I left my first job out of college because the company I worked for was full of corporate clones, they all spoke the same language, they all nodded in unison when the big guy talked.

I don’t want to be right all the time.  I don’t want to be surrounded by people who agree with everything I say or do.  I want to be challenged, if I’m always right, then how can I ever progress past the current state that I am in?

In Chapter 61 of the Tao, Lao Tzu says “The Master considers those who point out his faults as his most benevolent teachers.”  If we aren’t open to feedback, to criticism, and to ideas that differ from our own, we will never grow, we will never learn.

You may be asking yourself at this point “great, so how does this relate to web analytics and site optimization?”  Glad you asked.  In our role as analysts, we often challenge and are challenged based on the facts that we present.  The great analysts know that they will never make everyone happy and it’s not about being a “complainer” or being “negative” or being a “cynic”, it’s about being critical and questioning, questioning, questioning.

So, regardless of the role you are in, marketeer, product manager, web analyst, site optimizer, or CEO, if you want to create something great, be open to feedback (both positive and negative), if you want to be mired in mediocrity, surround yourself by people who readily agree with you, people who never push you to improve, people who never challenge you to transcend your limits.

“To think for yourself you must question authority and learn how to put yourself in a state of vulnerable, open-mindedness; chaotic, confused, vulnerability to inform yourself.“

~James Maynard Keenan

For 3 days, I was unable to access my FTP server on GoDaddy and I was starting to panic.  I begrudgingly reached for the phone and dialed their support number (a toll number at that). After a 15 minute wait and a 45 minute phone call, it was determined that the problem either was on my end or with my ISP. GoDaddy’s suggestion “contact your ISP”.

My first step was to send an email, explaining the complexity of my problem, to Qwest’s email support. After several hours of not hearing back, not even an automated email saying “we received your request”, I decided I would give the Qwest call center an opportunity to resolve my issue.

“Thank you for calling Qwest. We are experiencing a large call volume at this time. You estimated wait time is MORE THAN TEN MINUTES.”

5 Minutes Later (must be said in the Sponge Bob voice over voice).

“Thank you for calling Qwest. We are experiecing a large call volume at this time. You estimated wait time is LESS  THAN TEN MINUTES.”

5 Minutes Later (must be said in the Sponge Bob voice over voice).

“Thank you for calling Qwest. We are experiecing a large call volume at this time. You estimated wait time is MORE THAN TEN MINUTES.”

After finally reaching an agent, I spent at least 15 minutes trying to explain what FTP was.

Jason: I can’t access my GoDaddy FTP account. I can access it from work but not from home on the Qwest network. GoDaddy suggested I call you.

Qwest: Ok Jason. I want to assure you we will get your issue reconfigured (I think he meant to say “resolved”) shortly.

Jason: Fantastic.

Qwest: Jason, can you see web pages?

Jason: Ahhhh, Yeah, I like web pages but my problem is with FTP.

Qwest: Ok, so you are saying you have a problem with FPP. Let me configure (I think he meant to say “confer”) with my colleagues. {hold music} Ok, Jason, we don’t support FPP, that is why you are seeing this problem.

Jason: F-T-P

Qwest: Ok, let me reconfigure with one of my colleagues.

This went back and forth for over an hour and which point I was told that if I can see web pages the Qwest DSL service is working properly and I would need to hire a local computer technician to solve my problem.

I was at my wits end and decided I would give Qwest one last chance before I canceled my service and looked for a new ISP. I have had good luck resolving Omniture issues with their world-class support via Twitter so I thought Twitter might be the answer in this case as well. I found Qwest’s Twitter account:

Through this Tweet, I was quickly introduced to a top-level engineer at Qwest, who spent 2 hours with me, reconfiguring my network setup, going above & beyond his job to ensure that my network was configured for optimal performance. Not only did he fix the issue I was having accessing my FTP account, he also increased my network speed by 40% with a few modifications.

Did this one support incident have any impact to Qwest’s bottom line? I doubt it. I’m just a small customer, but this one event had a huge impact on my view of Qwest. Not only did I decide to stay with Qwest, at least for 6 more months, I now have a very positive story about how Twitter saved Qwest a customer that I’m more than happy to share with whomever will listen.

As an analyst, I found myself thinking, how would I measure this? How could I attribute the use of Twitter as a support tool to a customer’s lifetime value? I don’t have the answers but I do know that companies who are using social media tools in innovative ways (see also: other than lame PR and marketing efforts) are getting a huge jump on their competition. Companies that are using social media to push PR or who are not using social media at all, will find themselves playing catchup for a long time to come.

Companies use office real estate as a means of maintaining a sort of social order. It doesn’t take an advanced degree in deductive logic to observe this sacred, yet often unspoken ritual. Look around, when was the last time you saw a CEO sporting a tricked out cubical?

Now the social order goes something like this.

The Executive
The Executive is typically reserved for your upper crust of the corporate elite, your “C-Levels” and on occasions your senior vice presidents, we just call them SVPs in the industry. The Executive is typically a large and spacious office with views of nature or a sprawling city skyline.

The Mover & Shaker
The Mover & Shaker is custom made for the VP types. Slightly smaller than The Executive, the view is nice but they aren’t as sweeping as you would find in The Executive. They are typically pimped out in the finest leather furniture and a rich mahogany desk which is usually adorned with some sort of a kitschy gadget.

The Middle Manager
The Middle Manager has the same square footage as The Mover & Shaker but the view is of an alley way or parking structure. The office is usually a mess of papers and filing cabinets as the occupant engages in a vain attempt to impress the uppers.

The Team Lead
The Team Lead is an office by definition only. Its square and has walls and a door and may or may not have a window. The Team Lead is an unused closet that has been transformed into an office to keep its occupant un-disgruntled for a short period of time.

In my simple view of the world, why not just kill the office. Do we really need them? Lets transform all that worthless office space into work areas that any employee can make use of if the occasion so arises. The work area is akin to the library I made use of in college when I needed to get away from my drunken roommates who were flinging the neighbor girls panties across the room, I would pack up my books and head to the library for some focused study time.

The work area holds a similar promise. Employees when in need of some private time or just some time to be totally focused on a project can simply walk into a work area, shut the door, and get to work.

It should be clear that these work areas are not land to be conquered or claimed as part of an individuals attempt at empire building. They are, as the name so implies, an area in which one can work undisturbed for a determined period of time.

Join the revolution. Make a stand. Kill the office.