Even though I am crazily busy these days delivering and preparing a lot of stuff, I have to take a few minutes to first thank all 340 of you who have kept following me in 2008. I know I probably don’t deserve that much of your time and attention, since I wasn’t always diligent with keeping this blog. As usual, many people in the Web Analytics blogosphere wrote intelligent things about what happened in 2008. Others have ventured deeply in predicting what 2009 will probably be.
As for me, I kept learning a lot of things, always working on improving myself by acquiring valuable knowledge. I invest A LOT, both time-wise and money-wise, in growing and nurturing my skills. How do I do that? By attending courses, conferences (boy they’re expensive when you go on your own dime!), purchasing and studying books (yes, I pay for content), and following great thinkers on the Web Analytics, Online Marketing, BI, and Data Visualization blogosphere.
I am profoundly indebted to a group of people who have had more impact on how I think and grow professionally than they can imagine, and than I will ever be able to repay them:
– Jim Novo, for understanding so deeply, and explaining so well, how consumers behave. Jim has kept me away from a lot of B*** S*** in the past years;
– Gary Angel, for being the most sophisticated thinker in Web Analytics, pushing his thoughts to depths and ramifications that left me so many times in awe;
– Eric T. Peterson, for contributing so much to our community by trying to equip us with tools and models. It’s not always perfect, but take it away, and we’d still use candles to light the room;
– Kevin Hillstrom, for his precise, rigorous, and critical thinking. When I grow up, I want to be Kevin Hilstrom;
– Stephen Few, for showing me the world in new ways, and teaching me how to show it to others in new, simpler, and so more efficient manners. Data visualization, and particularly visual analysis, will have new deeper impact on us analysts in the future;
– Bryan Eisenberg, for always bringing me back to the ABC of selling, which can so easily be forgotten when one falls for the latest Marketing fad;
– Jill Dyché, for giving me the maps to a new world, guiding me within territories new to me;
– And the hundreds of others who chip in from time to time. They leave small marks, little imprints, that contribute so much in shaping me.
Thank you.
In 2008:
– We’ve finally made data integration the next planet to explore and inhabit;
– We’ve finally grown more tired of measuring visitors, and more interested in measuring customers;
– We’ve finally realized that once the long, and arduous discussion about which analytics tool to implement is over, 75% of the job is still left to do;
– We’ve finally seen our field legitimized in corporate culture with so many people now displaying a variation of “Web Analyst” on their name tag.
I think 2009 will be a defining year for Web Analytics as a field, as a theoretical framework, as a profession. Things will change names, jobs and roles will be redefined, the landscape will grow.
I can only hope for this new year to bring its share of learning, and for you to still be reading Analytics Notes.
To you, again, many thanks.