Yes, it’s that time of year when we start thinking about what we’ll do differently next year. Among the many challenges we all deal with is managing information, and more specifically how we consume information. Often we are not faced with too little information, but far too much. To make well-informed decisions, we need to better focus on the important information while either filtering out or delaying consumption of the rest.
A Little Background
Over the years, I’ve given the topic of digital analytics reporting a lot of thought. Running digital agencies and working with hundreds of clients over the past 30 years, I’ve seen how people of all levels handle (or don’t handle) information.
I was fortunate to consult with Kering, the parent company of brands like Gucci, Saint Lauren, Bottega Venetta, and others. Running 1-day digital analytics seminars for their groups in cities like Florence, Paris, New York, Boston, & Hong Kong, we engaged in conversations with people in positions ranging from copywriters to group presidents.
What made this engagement unique was the common goal of all to improve the digital experience for their customers. In one initiative, across multiple business units, we saw how tackling the same goal was being dealt with at all levels and across disciplines.
Common among all the people we worked with was the basic question:
“Did I have an impact?”
Digital Analytics & Reporting
That question, “did I have an impact?” is at the heart of how people should prioritize and consume information. It is the foundation for creating and delivering reports.
The experience with Kering lead to the writing of “Digital Analytics: The Culture of Insights and Actions” (Available at Amazon Kindle Edition or download the PDF version). While the book focuses on organizational culture and structure, it also touches on how we can each structure the information we consume.
What we saw at Kering, and across clients, is important information being overshadowed by mounts of interesting information.
Important information is what you need to know relative to your impact. Interesting information can be anything from broad KPIs that you cannot affect, to things other people want you to know about what they are doing, to fun facts in your industry. While consuming interesting information is great, doing so should not get in the way of clearly seeing the important information.
Before next year starts, determine what information you need to see in order to know:
- Did you have an impact?
- Was that impact what you expected?
- What might you do next for better outcomes?
For a copywriter, the set of information will be very different than for a marketing director. Both the nature of the information and the frequency it is needed will be different. For your role, what do you need to know, and how often do you need to see it?
This should be what informs your reporting.
The book mentioned above was written a while ago, so the tools mentioned as examples are not up to date. But, the book is not really about the tools. It is about the culture of the organizations that want to move toward better decision-making on all levels. If you’re thinking about reporting for your organization or your team, take a look; I hope it’s helpful.