A few years back, I remember reading a blog post by Avinash Kaushik on the subject of Multiplicity. In theory, I completely agreed with the idea of multiplicity however in practice, I found myself being a laser beam for all things Omniture. I was the perfect case study for the “single source of truth” model. I found myself sitting in strategy meetings where analytics was being discussed and I found myself sitting on the outside, only to be brought in if there was an “Omniture issue” or a question we needed “Omniture to answer”.
It didn’t sink in, that the model I had deployed for myself was against everything I believed in, until I found myself in the mountains, shooting scenes of nature, with two cameras and several lenses. It was then that it hit me, I was doing myself and the company I worked for a disservice by being an “Omniture Shop” rather than a “Web Analytics Shop”. In photography, there is never a single camera or lens or aperture setting that is right for every situation and the same is true for web analytics. If I was going to be a successful analyst, I needed to move outside my Omniture comfort zone and I needed to incorporate more gear into my bag.
Today, I make use of several tools to complete a job. Sometimes, what is required is a high end tool like Omniture Discover, other times something like CrazyEgg will get the job done. And yet others will take a combination of Omniture Discover, Omniture Test & Target, and ProClarity to get the job done right.
It is a mistake, one that I have been guilty of, to think that your high priced analytics tool is the only tool you’ll ever need. If I had made that mistake in my photography, I would have never put down my dSLR and picked up a $12 toy camera from China.
Taken with a $12 Holga camera from China
Avinash Kaushik
Crepuscular Light
Eric Peterson
Kevin Rogers
Pritesh Patel
Rudi Shumpert
3 Comments
Nice analogy Jason.
I grew up in the traditional DSS/BI world and I have come to believe this quest for “single source of truth” comes from there.
The difference is that the questions we ask of our ERP / CRM etc systems are a lot more finite (even as they are supremely important, perhaps even more than WA). We, on the web, have to answer a lot more complicated questions every day as the same site does order fulfillment, tech support, social “whatever” : ), be the drive by mall, convince job applicants, sell someone else’s product etc etc etc.
Then we need the approach you have so wonderfully covered in this post: How can I best answer the question on the table?
It is hard to do, at least for me, but it is well worth it.
Avinash.
Jason,
I could not agree more. That’s part of the reason I’ve been working with the Yahoo plugin and other tools. I do not want to get so entrenched in one tool that it becomes all I know how to do!
-Rudi
Thanks for stopping by Avinash. Just wanted to thank you for all the knowledge you so freely share, you have provided a wealth of great information for us in the analytics space to learn from.
Rudi, absolutely. I have learned a lot from reading your blog. It’s helped me realize I need to branch out. Keep up the great work and keep cranking out awesome applications.