There are many things that one needs to explain to clients when discussing the implementation of a metrics plan. I think all of these presentations should start with
“WE DON’T GUESS”
This is incredibly important to state. We may infer, suggest and suppose, but we do not guess. All of it should have a set of data behind it. When beginning any analytics program it is important to draw a chart. The knowledge chart:
Things we know, we know
This should be things such as what do we want to track, what business goals does this strategy need to align with, and what KPI will provide us with the data to measure success. The things we know we know should be our starting place for this plan.
Things we know we don’t know
What are the technical implications of the data we wish to collect? I don’t know, but Bob the tech guy will and knowing the guy who knows the answer is almost as good as knowing it yourself. By acknowledging the fact that something we don’t know will have an impact on our plan we can prepare for it.
Things we don’t know we know
These items may seem mysterious but they’re not, because we know them. I don’t know which analytics solution to use; Omniture, Webtrends, Google Analytics. The answer is, “yes, you do.” You simply need to think about your budget, learning curves, and technical limitations. The answers are there, you just need to find them.
Things we don’t know, we don’t know
Danger! Danger! Will Robinson. This is the black hole of knowledge. However you can mitigate the damage it can do by pre-arming yourself with carefully thought out processes.
With our knowledge chart we can figure out how each piece of the strategy and implementation of a metrics plan fits. We can use the things we know we know to start off, investigate the things we know we don’t know, discover the things we didn’t know we knew, and by doing so avoid the things we don’t know we don’t know.
*Whew*