Comments on: Are web analytics like 24-hour news networks?

By: Wanna be better with metrics? Watch more poker and less baseball. | Retail: Shaken Not Stirred

Thu, 07 Jan 2010 01:01:37 +0000

[...] Are web analytics like 24-hour news networks [...]

By: Kevin Ertell

Kevin Ertell — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 01:40:51 +0000

Thanks for pointing out the value of immediate data at times, Sarah. I completely agree that a massive short term change in data is a cause for alarm, particularly when there was no other major change occurring on the site. As you recognize, that type of situation is different from just wanting to know if a major strategic change is effective in a very short time after launching it. Thanks again for your comments.

By: Sarah

Sarah — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 18:54:58 +0000

Thsi is a thought-provoking post, and one that makes the case that we need to stand up to our bosses when they pressure us to report on data earlier than we think is appropriate. However, one caveat to your point in the first paragraph that we are even accessing data too quickly: some times data can be a real canary in a coal mine with some website problems. Sometimes you can see right away that a link is broken or that something isn’t working right, and you can tell it within minutes. So I’d make the case that we should be watching the data, just not acting on it so soon.