{"id":2988,"date":"2010-08-09T01:23:12","date_gmt":"2010-08-09T08:23:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kaushik.net\/avinash\/win-big-web-analytics-eliminate-data-focus-outcomes\/"},"modified":"2026-05-19T15:33:15","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T22:33:15","slug":"win-big-web-analytics-eliminate-data-focus-outcomes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kaushik.net\/avinash\/win-big-web-analytics-eliminate-data-focus-outcomes\/","title":{"rendered":"Win Big With Web Analytics: Eliminate Data & Eschew Fake Proxies"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"One The hardest nut to crack in any type of analytics is getting our decision makers (bosses, leaders, marketers) to take action based on data.<\/p>\n

The hard nut is not that we all are doing basic reporting about Visits and Bounces<\/a>. Ok doing just that is lame. But still that’s not all of it.<\/p>\n

It might shock you that the hard nut is not even that we, the people who “play” with data, the Analysis Ninjas if you will, are not leveraging custom reports<\/a> and advanced segmentation<\/a> and activity alerts<\/a> and all that cool stuff.<\/p>\n

It is that no one wants to take action on our data. Ok not no one. But most of the time no one takes action based on our hard work.<\/p>\n

Why?<\/p>\n

To illustrate perhaps the most obvious, and yet hidden, problem I wanted to share with you a recent experience I had with data. It was not in the context of web analytics and yet I think it presents a solution to our problem.<\/p>\n

On my (beloved) Nexus One android phone one of my absolute favorite applications is Cardio Trainer<\/a>. I just love it. The UI and the UX and how it is so darn easy to use (and much more well thought than competitors like My Tracks). You must<\/font> get it.<\/p>\n

I use it when I do any kind of exercise (or hike with the kids). You just open the app, say Start Workout, choose the type of work out (running, biking, elliptical, horseback riding, and 15 other choices) and you are up and running.<\/p>\n

It starts tracking you (GPS and what not), pauses when you pause, and if you choose even talks to you (motivation!).<\/p>\n

When the workout is done it gives you. . . . data!<\/p>\n

\"cardiotrainer <\/p>\n

Awesome right? What analyst \/ data person would not love this.<\/p>\n

There is a sweet map (I can switch to the satellite view and see the buildings I went around!) and there is lots of data.<\/p>\n

\n

Time: 0:22:07  Distance:  6.74 kilometers Speed: 18.3 km\/hr Calories: 207<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

It is a great dashboard. <\/p>\n

For the first few times I used CardioTrainer I loved seeing the data (almost more than the fast bike ride). I would switch the map to the satellite view and drill down into the woods and the lake and the trees.<\/p>\n

Of course I would look ay the data and maybe remember fragments.<\/p>\n

Remind you of something? <\/p>\n

Perhaps your web analytics dashboard. Or perhaps your “data summary report”. Or, hopefully not, the data puke that goes to the entire management team.<\/p>\n

Initially everyone’s happy, nothing much happens, yet it feels good.<\/p>\n

In my case pretty soon I switched to another view of the data, this one. . . .<\/p>\n

\"workout_data_summary_cardio_trainer\" <\/p>\n

Shorter summary. No gimmicks like the map. : ) A bit more data.<\/p>\n

I can see Total Climb (elevation): 16 m. I can also see the min and max for Speed (max 25.1, min 7.5). Pretty good right?<\/p>\n

This view felt better. It seemed like less data.  Bit easier to remember the Calories. <\/p>\n

I am embarrassed to admit that having two more speed numbers (min and max) made me forget the speed even faster, and that’s a number I love to remember because I want to constantly beat it.<\/p>\n

More data did not make life any more data driven.<\/p>\n

Then the other day I noticed that CardioTrainer was auto-updated over the air (love this Android feature!). <\/p>\n

When I was done with the workout I was astounded to see this when I hit the End Workout button. . . .<\/p>\n

\"cardio <\/p>\n

All my beloved data was gone and it was replaced by this simple message:<\/p>\n

2 Pears<\/p>\n

OMG! Awesome!<\/p>\n

Here is what was so cool (and not it was not just the Great Job! line):<\/p>\n