Building a Digital Analytics Organization: Create Value by Integrating Analytical Processes, Technology, and People into Business Operations (FT Press Analytics) 1st Edition

I originally got to know Judah Phillips through Web Analytics Wednesdays events he organized, and in recent years he's kindly participated on panels I've moderated and has been helpful to my own writing and publishing efforts. I've even partnered with some of the excellent professionals who have worked for him. So while I'm biased as the beneficiary of his wisdom and support, I can also vouch first-hand for the depth and credibility of his advice. In short, in an increasingly hype-filled category, Judah is the real deal, and this makes "Building The Digital Analytics Organization" a book to take seriously.For me the book was useful on three levels. One, it's a foundational text for framing how to come at business analysis and reporting. Specifically, he presents an Analytics Value Chain that reminds us to bookend our analytic efforts per se with a clear set of objectives and actions, an orientation that's sadly missing in many balkanized corporate environments. Two, it's a blueprint for your own organization-building efforts. He really covers the waterfront, from how to approach analysis, to different kinds of analysis you can pursue, to how to organize the function and manage its relationships with other groups that play important supporting roles. For me, Chapter 6, "Defining, Planning, Collecting, and Governing Data in Digital Analytics" is an especially useful section. In it, he presents a very clear, straightforward structure for how you should set up and run these crucial functions. Finally, three, Judah offers a strong point of view on certain decisions. For example, I read him to advocate for a strongly centralized digital analytics function, rooted in the "business" side of the house, to make sure that you have both critical mass for these crucial skills, as well as proximity to the decisions they need to support.These three uses had me scribbling in the margins and dog-earing extensively. But if you still need one more reason to pull the trigger, it helps that the book is very up-to-date and has a final chapter that looks forward very thoughtfully into how Judah expects what he describes as the "Analytical Economy" to evolve. This section is both a helpful survey of the different capabilities that will shape this future as well as an exploration of the issues these capabilities and associated trends will raise, in particular as they relate to privacy. It's a valuable checklist, to make sure you're not just building for today, but for the next few years to come.

worth buying and good details

The book is surely written by someone who is very experienced in implementing data design and tests. However, the strategies the writer suggested are somehow not concise enough. I wish the strategies and structures could be more structured. It would also be better if the author could compare different tech vendors he has used before.