Web Analytics Project Brief: How to MOBILIZE and ENERGIZE your analytics team

Editor's Notes

• #5: Is this what you think of when you think of your team? Report Monkey is a bit of a derogatory term in our industry, and for good reason. Your stakeholders might think you and your team just punch out reports all day long. But YOU know that your team is much more capable than that. Your team has the experience and expertise to provide insights and can help make real business impact. But the trouble we all face is being able to give the analysts their opportunity to shine.
• #7: By Tkgd2007 (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) or GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)], via Wikimedia Commons
• #9: Give them the freedom to explore and recommend a new approach… while still meeting client/stakeholder needs and expectations. Instead of giving your team a laundry list of things to do- pull this metric, create this visualization, make that report- give them a SPRINGBOARD to launch into fresh ideas and SOLVE A BUSINESS NEED.
• #10: Do what creative agencies have done for years- write a brief
• #11: When I first got started in analytics, we didn’t use briefs. Then I transitioned to the Account department as an brand new Account Manager, the first thing I did was dust off my copy of The Art of Client Service I had been a part of the rank and file on the analytics team. Now that I’m an account manager, I’m responsible for bringing in the analytics work and making my clients happy. I quickly learned that it wasn’t just me putting on my analyst cap and dictating the methodology and scope of our projects. Nope. If I wanted to unlock the creative potential of my analytics team, I needed a new way to frame the work. And I’ve found that the best tool to do that is an analytics project brief. So what I’m going to show you today is my personal approach to the “analytics project brief”. Your agency may already have a practice of using briefs. You may call them Creative Briefs, Project Briefs, Communication Briefs… but given my personal experience in analytics, I haven’t seen too many people approach their analytics projects with a brief.
• #12: Over the course of my analytics career, I’ve had the privilege to work with more than two dozen full-time analysts. These people are some of the most creative problem solvers I have ever met. Most people don’t come straight out of college with a degree in web analytics. Right? I think there’s a few analytics-focused college programs now, but generally your seasoned analysts come from a diverse background. I’ve known analysts from behavioral science backgrounds, mathematicians and statisticians, some with marketing degrees and MBAs, and a couple that came from journalism. Just think about your team’s rich and diverse experience. There is a goldmine of creative problem solving when you get a bunch of analysts from varying backgrounds into the same room. They each have different approaches to the work. Their brains are wired differently from each other. They are creative. So why not treat them as creative people? For a billion years, advertising agencies have unlocked the creative potential of their designers, copywriters, and art directors with a creative brief.
• #13: There’s two things that a good project brief should do, and that’s to provide Direction, and to provide Inspiration. By itself, the brief is just a piece of paper. Use it as a tool, otherwise it’s useless.
• #14: This is not your Statement of Work.
• #15: Briefly, Bassett and Partners http://vimeo.com/107567840
• #16: Briefly, Bassett and Partners http://vimeo.com/107567840
• #18: Use the brief whenever you need to communicate an idea. The need for analysis is born from the imperative for insight to make business decisions. There is a challenge that needs to be solved. What is it? Why is it important? What is the PURPOSE of ever doing any analysis? That’s what you capture in a brief. So use a brief whenever that purpose needs to be expressed. Because in most cases, you’re going to need to get more than one person aligned to that purpose. Use the brief to set DIRECTION. Remember when I said the brief needs to do two things? One was to provide direction. What was the other thing? Inspiration! So in the vein of INSPIRATION, remember that briefs are a communication tool. Using a brief like a form that’s has to be filled out just for the sake of some process you set up is not very valuable. Personally, I hate mindless paperwork. I hate excessive processes that get in the way of doing any “real” work. Do you ever feel like that? Instead of thinking of the brief as just some form that you sit down and fill out at the beginning of a project because you have to, think of it as a storytelling-vehicle. If it’s not interesting to read, then who’s going to read it? It’s kinda like you are writing an EPIC. There’s some challenge to overcome, a world that needs saving, a call for a hero to meet his or her destiny. And who are your heros? Your analytics team! When you need your analytics team to save the day, you know you need an analytics brief!
• #19: And when you get ready to start writing your brief, try to include as much of the project team as possible. Even the client or stakeholders who you’re reporting to. We’re trying to get everyone on the same page, and a brief isn’t something that should be written in isolation. This is a well-known management strategy. To make sure your team is engaged in a project and feel like they have some ownership, it’s far better to include them early on in the development of brief. When they are partly responsible for putting it together, they have some skin in the game. Nobody likes being bossed around- allow your team to participate in setting the direction, and you’ll have a better engagement rate. Same goes for clients and stakeholders, another reason to include them as well.
• #20: Alright, so I’ve talk enough about why you should do a brief. Let’s get to the details.
• #21: http://www.pinterest.com/orondet/creative-brief/ From Simon Veksner, Creative Partner at DDB Sydney: “I once asked a Creative who had changed agencies what the brief was like at his new place. He replied: ‘Same shit, different boxes.’” http://scampblog.blogspot.com/2013/11/whats-your-brief-like_3.html You’re likely going to come up with your own format that works for you. But I’ll show you what I’ve done for my agency and what’s worked really well for us. You might have different needs, based on the varying talents and communication approaches of your specific people.
• #22: Here’s a sample creative brief from chapter 6 of The Art of Client Service, my favorite account management book. This is where I started from. When you read through the content of the brief, however, it’s clear that this is a brief specifically for developing advertising. What we’re trying to do is design a brief for developing insight. So we’re going to need different questions.
• #23: Here’s my pride and joy. Now we’re looking at the analytics brief at a glance, and don’t worry, we’ll go into each section.
• #25: In most cases, you’re starting a new project at someone’s request, your client or your internal stakeholder. It is important to listen and understand what that client is asking for, and you capture that here. However, to level up your services and make sure that your team isn’t working like a bunch of report monkeys, we don’t stop here at the client ask- because the client may not be asking for the right things, they might not be asking the right questions. Remember what a brief is meant to do, it’s to provide direction and inspiration. So I don’t consider the client ask to be absolute directive, but at the end of the day, we serve our clients and need to make sure we either give them what they want or help them to ask the right questions and give them those answers.
• #26: This is my favorite part of the brief. These are the juicy bits. The first two parts of the analytics brief address the challenge. Think back to our four things that a brief needs: First, what is the challenge. Second, what’s going to help? The Drivers section makes it clear in the analyst mind about what is the point of doing this work? This is the motivating piece. This should get your analysts fired up. Why? Because analysts are problem solvers. This is the call to adventure. If you write this well, the wheels are turning and the analysts already have a zillion thoughts and ideas whirling in their heads. This Drivers section also sets up the goal post. “This is where we need to get to.” This is what project success looks like- this is how we will know if we’ve done our job well.
• #33: My analysts have told me that they love the new approach. “I’m glad you’re the account manager”
• #35: A brief should never be written by yourself. Include your analysts as much as possible, craft the brief together. I also encourage working with your clients as much as possible.
• #36: The brief is not a scope of work. The brief does not contain every single little detail that might be required for the project. Make sure your analysts have access to supporting documents: such as strategy decks, SDRs, media schedules, etc. Don’t try to cram all that info into the brief- remember the brief should be BRIEF. If at all possible, it should fit on a single page.