Bursting the Analytics Bubble

I'd have to disagree a bit with the basic assertion of this article. While focusing on higher quality output of content is clearly useful, it can't be said that it is necessarily more useful than analytics. First, how do you quantify the quality of content? Is it by personal preference or by the number of site users engaging with that content? I'd probably use engagement (the stuff that leads to revenue) as the metric of choice for ascertaining the qualitative value of content, and , of course, that would be most accurately measured by the site's analytic data. Analytics help objectify what content people like and removes the aspect of personal preference.

Additionally, we need to understand why our traffic does certain things and, more importantly, why they do not do certain things. Analytics can help identify deficiencies in our site's user interface that cause friction for users to do the things we need. Without the proper data to show how users are interacting on a site, UI designers may be shooting in the dark if the goals are conversion rates and not just slick designs.

It's true and unfortunately this has been my experience at a couple of previous employers as well. Given the difficulties of actually collecting good data and properly analyzing it, it's no wonder that the same analytical tools, used to great success in some companies, can be rendered useless or even harmful.

I'll add that a third reason for the obsession over analytics is that stat reports tend to take the focus off of the decision makers themselves. Managers who aren't confident in (or wishing to escape responsibility from) their decisions can simply blame the numbers and graphs and say they had no other alternative.

In some dysfunctional organizations, "judgement" and "decision" are bad words that imply bias and liability, whereas "report" and "conclusion" are pure gold.

Don't be too discouraged, though. There are plenty of employers who avoid using analytics inappropriately and know that great products and customer service are even better than stat reports in the long run.