33 Tangents

On last week’s episode we talked about the concept of businesses that can be seen as boring, but are very profitable.  One of the key things with those businesses is that they are indispensable to their customers.

Over the years we’ve talked about the struggles with digital analytics, and while there has been progress, it’s still not seen as indispensable to a business.  Why is that?  What does it mean for something to be indispe...

What comes to mind when the term “boring yet profitable business” is used?  Often times these are businesses that have developed & refined offerings that are integral and indispensable to their customers.  They can often be derided for not being flashy or trendy, but that treatment fair?

What goes into reaching that kind of status?  Are businesses actively thinking about reaching that point?  What can prevent a business from ...

We’re currently doing a series of episodes looking at the concepts of getting back to basics and simplicity.  We’re looking at the benefits of refocusing attention on the key concepts and practices that can get overlooked or forgotten as analytics and testing programs age.

When working with a testing tool, it’s easy to get lost in the excitement of all of the possibilities.  Those possibilities though may never materialize if pro...

In recent episodes we’ve looked at the concept of getting back to basics and simplicity.  We’ve discussed the benefits of refocusing attention on the key concepts and practices that can get overlooked or forgotten as analytics and testing programs age.

When a large amount of data is collected, it is easy to get lost in all of the possible analysis that can be done.  While it can be fun to search out insights, are there certain an...

We’ve started a series of episodes about getting back to basics and the value of simplicity.  We’re looking at the benefits of refocusing attention on the key concepts and practices that can get overlooked or forgotten as analytics and testing programs age.  

What are the best practices when it comes to designing a tag management architecture?  What needs to be considered when deciding on a TMS approach?  Is there a TMS methodolo...

A new implementation can be exciting!  It’s a fresh canvas to work with.  A new client can present opportunities to try out ideas you’ve only thought of.  These are just two of the scenarios that analytics implementation engineers are presented with that create the pull to collect all of the data.  

• While this can be fun, exciting, and provide unique sets of data, there are problems that can result from an over-engineered ana...

Architecting data collection for multiple tools within a single vendor solution can be appear to be beneficial from the stand-point of reduced logic and streamlined integrations.  It can seem simplified and streamlined resulting in a solution that can be managed with greater ease.

Are there pitfalls when it comes to single-vendor solutions?  What problems with the data collection can present themselves?

On this week’s episode o...

Vendor lock-in occurs when a customer is made dependent on a vendor for products & services, unable to utilize other vendors without substantial cost. 

How can organizations fall into a vendor lock-in situation?  What are the costs that are associated with vendor lock-in?  How can point analytics solutions lead to vendor-lock in?

On this week’s episode of the 33 Tangents Podcast, Jim and Jason discuss what can lead organiza...

Risks of point analytics solutions include myopic vision and teams working in isolation.  Teams implement solutions that fit a small amount of needs that do not take the needs of the organization, or the impacts to the organization, into account.  The downstream result is siloed data creating incomplete insights and even a poor customer experience. 

If you have a customer experience this is supported by multiple data/platform tou...

When people think of analytics data, many often think of “cold hard facts”, but this is can be very inaccurate.  Like many other things in life, data can be skewed, biased, or even outright corrupted.  Everyone has a bias and for an analytics team to act as an independent voice in an organization, steps need to be taken to ensure bias does not impact a team’s ability to deliver on that promise.

Putting unintentional issues and fl...

Conflicts of interest can do significant damage to an analytics practice.  It doesn’t take much for conflicts of interest to occur and in many cases all it takes is the perception of one.

What are the potential conflicts of interest that an analytics program can face?  What impact do they have on an analytics program?  How do these conflicts of interest develop?  

On this week’s episode of the 33 Tangents podcast, Jim and Jason...

Many organizations view teams and divisions in very basic terms.  They are either profit centers or cost centers.  Profit centers are those parts of the organization that have direct impact on revenue while cost centers are essential parts of the business but don’t impact revenue.  Cost centers are viewed as something that needs to be contained.

Since analytics teams do not have direct impact on revenue, how can they be viewed as...

We’re currently taking a break for the holidays.  We’ll be back with new episodes starting on January 3, 2024.

This episode originally aired on November 16, 2022.

As the saying goes, one rotten apple spoils the bunch.  In the real world, one person can ruin an entire team.

How will a low level of data literacy impact an organization?  Can you think of example of organizations where it’s apparent where they are not very data l...

We’re currently taking a break for the holidays.  We’ll be back with new episodes starting on January 3, 2024.

This episode originally aired on August 3, 2022.

The people that make up the digital analytics space come from a variety of backgrounds and have wildly different educational backgrounds and career paths.  Unlike other careers, there are no prescribed paths or series of steps to get into and move forward with a career i...

Analytics teams are realizing that it’s no longer good enough to just check boxes to show value.  They need to show how the organization benefits from both the team in place and the tools that have been implemented.  Analytics practices need to evolve and directors have to look at the practice as business unto itself.

On social media platforms like LinkedIn and Instagram we see a lot of the hustle and entrepreneur hype.  It doesn’t...

We’re currently taking a break for a new addition to the family.  We’ll be back with new episodes starting on December 6, 2023.

This episode originally aired on April 13, 2022.

Server-side tracking is being pitched as the next great leap forward in analytics and marketing data collection.  It is positioned as the cure for all current ills facing digital analytics and marketing data collection as well as those to come.

What is...

We’re currently taking a break for a new addition to the family.  We’ll be back with new episodes starting on December 6, 2023.

This episode originally aired on February 16, 2022.

Requests for Proposal (RFPs) are a staple when it comes to the procurement of products and services.  They are often dreaded by not just those completing them, but by those running them.

What value can a company get by running an RFP to procure serv...

We’re currently taking a break for a new addition to the family.  We’ll be back with new episodes starting on December 6, 2023.

This episode originally aired on July 20, 2022.

Over last couple of years, the summer vacation season has provided the opportunity to talk about what is often seen as a controversial topic…Unlimited PTO.  It is something that has its fervent proponents and its ardent detractors.  It’s a conversation th...

We’re currently taking a break for a new addition to the family.  We’ll be back with new episodes starting on December 6, 2023.

This episode originally aired on April 21, 2021.

Four years ago in the episode “Is Unlimited Time Off Actually Unlimited?”, Jim, Hila, and Jason took a hard look at the concept of unlimited PTO to see if it’s something employees find valuable or just a gimmick.  They left that conversation genuinely qu...