“Pussycat pussycat, where have you been?”
“I’ve been to London to visit the Queen.”
“Pussycat pussycat, what did you there?” “I frightened a little mouse under her chair”
Tell the folks at home all about Elizabeth “Smalls” Eckels
Hrm, I don’t much like talking about myself, so I’m going to copy/paste a bio, pic is above:
Rock star web analyst in training, graduated cum laude in finance & marketing. Real life experience includes web marketing, sports marketing, retail and door-to-door sales, computer repair, customer service, legislative, and design roles. The industries I have worked in are education, retail, computer hardware & software, athletics, government, & interior design. My love for numbers began when I was 5, received my first abacus, and counted and compared (then shared my findings of) everything I could.
My introduction to web analytics began with Omniture products, specifically SiteCatalyst, Discover, Data Warehouse, and Test & Target. My experience has been focused on implementation, configuration, reporting, and business analysis. Documentation has been a byproduct of these efforts.
I am certified in Google Analytics and have further developed my abilities to provide insights based on the data. A consistent goal is to provide valuable business recommendations based on correct data.
Where I come from “Smalls” refers to underwear. Why is this your nickname, rather than, say, Ickle Eckles?
Underwear – that’s intriguing, but I am not underwear. Not that I know of at least.
Smalls is my nickname because of my petite stature. I’m just barely 5’1″ and I’m not sure I’ve ever been present on the growth chart. And that’s tough for me, because I really like charts. The nickname was given to me in college by a group of friends as a play on the quote in the movie Sandlot when Ham says to Scotty (Smalls) “You’re killin me Smalls!
‘O stand, stand at the window As the tears scald and start;
You shall love your crooked neighbour With your crooked heart.’
It was late, late in the evening, The lovers they were gone;
The clocks had ceased their chiming, And the deep river ran on
Dear old Auden. His name rhymed with… not much really.
And now it is time to sit back, relax and hear briefly from Phil Mui, a man of few words, but with many fans.
Previous to your current job at a reasonably well-known interweb company, you were a senior research developer at the Stanford University School of Medicine. What should I do if my knee hurts every Tuesday after a mushroom cup-a-soup?
Visit your doctor.
Do you get do actual analysis in your day job?
Yes! We use Google Analytics on Google Analytics usage!
If you moved to a small village in rural Scandinavia without internet access, what job would you do?
Work on getting internet access for the village! There are satellite based connections, right?
Who is your superhero-sans-cape in the analytics community and why?
Avinash Kaushik for his tremendous thought leadership to the industry & to GA.
What was your very third job?
Not sure what this question means.
Do you think that being on the vendor side of the digital analytics industry makes it easier or harder to fit in at dinner parties?
Definitely easier as long as I know that I have something worthwhile to share. I don’t wish to be part of a vendor which is not a thought leader.
What is your wish for the remainder of 2012?
The world does not end this year (per the Mayan prediction).
Tell us something about you that you think is interesting.
I used to be a competitive marksman, and WAS a collegiate affiliate member of the NRA.
Last week, as part of a trip to visit the Yahoo! mother-ship in Sunnyvale and other goodness, I attended the eMetrics Marketing Optimization Summit in San Francisco. This was my second time attending eMetrics in San Francisco, a city that is getting up there with potatoes on my list of “Things Wot Emer Thinks Are Neat”.
As the opportunity to attend eMetrics succeeded my travel arrangements, I sadly missed part of the first day, thereby adding to the list of “Things Wot Emer Should Have Done Wot Didn’t”. I missed Peter Fader, who was part of a keynote panel called “Data Driving for a Good Cause”. This is the second time I’ve missed the opportunity to see Peter “Nerd Crush Time” Fader speak, so I must concede that he is trying to avoid me. This is understandable.
The first presentation I saw was by the lovely Hila Strong from Keystone Solutions. Hila’s topic was “How I find Optimization Opportunities by Cheating on my Web Analytics Vendor” during which she illustrated how to simply find optimization ideas. This included videoing her adorable (and sharp) son testing site usability in sites relevant to his age-group. This and other videos of users interacting with site functions really resonated with the audience and it was mentioned to me several times as a key takeaway for usability optimization over the next couple of days. At scale, this may have its difficulties (in that it is, as Hila said, time-heavy activity) but it is a great way to understand what elements of your site are losing you conversions or impacting your brand.
– If you are planning to present – find a way that humanises you and moves away from standard slides –
Following Hila was a great panel discussion on “Making a Career in Big Data”, featuring Bob “I’ve got earrings” Page, Joe “My name is a short poem” Megibow and John “Thank goodness I don’t have a nickname yet” Elder. This was fantastic because it featured people with real experience in the industry who have caused actual positive change to business success. These boys are titans. There was nerd-swooning everywhere – it was like The Beatles had been reborn as nerds.
Last March, I enjoyed a merry old time at the Web Analytics Association (WAA) Awards for Excellence Gala – a celebration of contributors, vendors, technologies and more in the digital analytics space. This year, it’s happening all over again and it’s going to be better than ever. But you need to act quickly – nominations close on February 1st 2012.
What’s it all about?
Here’s the blurb: ”Are you or one of your colleagues a digital analytics pro who deserves recognition? Do you know of a company worthy of appreciation? At the 2nd annual Web Analytics Association Awards for Excellence, the WAA will celebrate the outstanding contribution to our profession of individuals, agencies, vendors and practitioners. Here’s your chance to get out from the shadows and into the spotlight with other industry luminaries.”
Who won last year?
Client/Practitioner of the Year:Joe Megibow, VP, Global Analytics and Optimization, Expedia.com
“As I drew in my head, and was turning around, Down the chimney St. Nicholas came with a bound.
He was dressed all in fur, from his head to his foot, And his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot; A bundle of toys he had flung on his back, And he looked like a peddler just opening his pack.”
If Papa Cringle has a Naughty but Nice list, it’s probably the same as the Silly Series list.
And now, for a snack to go with your eggnog, it’s time to turn our attention to Ted McDonald, a man who took six months to answer the silly questions below, bless him.
Tell the nice reader peoples about Ted McDonald.
I’ve been a full-time web analyst for almost 6 years, working for interesting brands like Nat Geo, Carfax, and now Verisign. Prior to that, I always made it a large part of my job, even if that meant sifting through log files for tracking codes used in that special email campaign. I really got the taste for web analytics when I got my hands on SiteCatalyst back in 2004. After several years of toiling as a jack-of-all-trades marketing type / entrepreneur, where web analytics was headed at the time seemed like the perfect blend of marketing, math, and web that you couldn’t find anywhere else and I never regret making the career move.
You have triplets. How did you tell them apart when they were babies? Did you secretly have no idea which was which?
You got me…I could not tell them apart for quite a while. They were very tiny at first – under 3 pounds. Even the doctors could not tell them apart when they were first born. We wanted to name the two identical Ben and Zach, but no one knew which was which until after a blood test, so the identical are now Ben and Nick. I had to use blue nail polish on one of the little guys’ thumbs for several months until we definitely knew who was who.
That’s lovely picture of you in a Jim Sterne t-shirt. How many hours a day do you spend crouched in his garden watching him?
“And out of all the windows, No matter where we went, The merriest eyes would follow me And make me compliment.
There were a thousand windows, All latticed up and down. And up to all the windows, When we went back to town,
The queer folk put their faces, As gentle as could be; ”Come again, little girl!” they called, and I Called back, “You come see me!”"
Edna St. Vincent Millay, especially for my friend JayDaisy and her daughter Foxylocks. If that isn’t a metaphor for the website/visitor relationship, I don’t know what is!
It is time to turn our jingle bells to Petri Mertanen – a man who’s always in the dark
Tell us all about Petri Mertanen.
I have been interested in the Internet since my marketing studies started in 1995 at North Carelian University of Applied Sciencies. The school was in Joensuu, which is my original home town in eastern part of Finland. I finished my BBA degree with a final paper about eCommerce, right after I moved to Helsinki area in 1999. During my career I have been involved all the time more or less with web-related software and projects in various positions. In the beginning of 21st century, web analytics came along with some server log based systems and I was hooked.
It was a bit of accident that I became an entrepreneur later on and I found myself as a managing director of NXC Finland, previously Naviatech Solutions) in 2005. Since then I started studying more analytics business and got involved with the Finnish community (Kalle Heinonen, Steve Jackson and the rest). It paid off because I was selected by these gentlemen as a chairman of WAA Finland in 2007. Today, I’m a free agent and looking for the next challenge.
Your sister has an Olympic bronze medal. What was that for, and are you a little bit jealous?
Yes. Maybe I have to admit that my sister is a better hockey player than me.
Or not.
At least I’m hearing that a lot in our locker room. I have been playing for 26 hockey seasons [profile and career stats] so of course I’m very jealous about that Olympic bronze medal from Vancouver. And couple of World Champ bronze medals as well.
Yeah, maybe I was some kind of role model for my sis when I played in first division in Finland (second level) – at least she is saying that so I could feel better. As revenge I invited her into field of web analytics so we have to share same passion and punishment.
If you wrote a book on web analytics in Finnish, how many sales would you make in the first week?
I have very large fan group in Finland so I guess that during the first week I could sell 5 copies (parents, both sisters and me).
Actually I have been asked to write a book couple of times, but so far I enjoy just writing to my blog every now and then.
“The free bird thinks of another breeze And the trade winds soft through The sighing trees And the fat worms waiting on a dawn-bright Lawn and he names the sky his own. But a caged bird stands on the grave of dreams His shadow shouts on a nightmare scream His wings are clipped and his feet are tied So he opens his throat to sing. The caged bird sings with A fearful trill of things unknown But longed for still and his Tune is heard on the distant hill For the caged bird sings of freedom”.
Maya Angelou must have ended up in a Silly Series.
Now we turn the spotlight on Pritesh Patel, Jim Sterne’s doppelganger.
Who is Pritesh Patel?
This Pritesh Patel is one of 513 (yes, fracking 513!!) other Pritesh Patels on LinkedIn. I am the Digital Marketing Manager for Pauley Creative, a B2B digital marketing agency serving companies within the construction sector – mainly product manufacturers. Very niche. I went to school with another Pritesh Patel and during an Achievements Evening at school, where all the kids would get certificates for outstanding performances in subjects, I purposely collected the other Pritesh Patel’s award for Best Progress in Reading and Writing. I was the only school child who ended up with two certificates. I am friends with him on Facebook and, to this day, he is still asking me if I took his award. Pffff….Loser!!! It’s a dog eat dog world my friend and I have the bigger teeth!
You studied Visual Communication in university. Is that the one where you learn to tell people things with your eyes?
No. It’s a just posh alternative for ‘colouring in’. I also did a Foundation Degree in Art and Design and once had to paint a plant using just fish oil and tomato ketchup!
It is a year to the day since I began the Silly Series, in which I profile the great and the good of the digital analytics industry. I had planned to run the thing for a couple of weeks, but it became bigger than me and I have adored learning more about colleagues I admire and respect. This is the 68th profile I have posted – click here to see the full list of profiles.
Huge thanks to all who have participated – if you enjoy the profiles and want to be involved, drop me a line!
Today, helping to celebrate the paper anniversary, is Richard Calentine, man of fashion.
What can you tell us about Richard Calentine, esquire?
The first question is a tough one. I am a very complicated individual. I am not really from anywhere, but I am from a lot of places. I spent some time in upstate New York and I went to college in Texas, so I guess I am a “New Texan”.
I have done a lot of things before I got started in web analytics – from sales, financial analysis, and a pricing analysis for convenience stores. I finally entered into web analytics via a newspaper ad for an internet marking analyst. I had done analysis in previous positions and I had used the internet before. I could do this job, right?
You studied Computer Science at Quinnipiac University. What is a quinnipiac and how do you clean up if it gets on the couch?
I did study computer science for a brief period of time. Well, a Quinnipiac is a bobcat so you are going to need a BIG pooper-scooper. Do you happen to have one I can borrow?
“This passion of our kind For the process of finding out Is a fact one can hardly doubt, But I would rejoice in it more If I knew more clearly what We wanted the knowledge for, Felt certain still that the mind Is free to know or not.”
Smart man, that Auden – I doubt he’d think much of the Silly Series.
Now we turn to Claudiu Murariu – a man who cannot fathom why people would abandon his site.
What should the folks at home know about Claudiu?
I’m 28 but I weigh as much as a 14 year-old. That never stopped me from jumping out of planes, paragliding or adventuring in Siberia.
2 years ago I quit a job I really liked and started my own company that I like even more. I started doing web analytics around 4 or 5 years ago, out of necessity. I had nobody around me to give me answers to questions I had about the performance of the projects I was working on. Never stopped since then.
On a scale of one to tomato, how important is the digital analytics industry?
It’s a very tough question and we’ll have to do some research to find out. We first need to find the value of tomato. I know what you are thinking: find out where it grew, how many miles did it travel, and how, to where it sits now, double it if it came in by plane and take out from the final number the carbon tax.
No, I won’t do it like that. I’ll take a fork and a knife, I’ll slice the tomato, pick the seeds, dry them, plant them in 2 different places with different environmental conditions, see which lot gives the best results, make sure it’s statistically significant, find a fellow who does the same with cucumber and organize a salad party on a Web Analytics Wednesday.
With a certain degree of confidence we can state that on a scale from one to tomato, web analytics has a high value.
“Man hath stil either toyes, or Care, He hath no root, nor to one place is ty’d, But ever restless and Irregular About this Earth doth run and ride, He knows he hath a home, but scarce knows where, He sayes it is so far That he hath quite forgot how to go there.”
Good old Vaughan – probably had a Silly Series though.
It’s time to turn our attention to Chris Olenik – a man who should immediately be persuaded to sing at the next eMetrics Marketing Optimization Summit.
Tell us all we need to know (and more) about Chris Olenik.
By day, I work with an incredible team at Keystone Solutions as we dominate the world of digital marketing and optimization. At night and when I am not on Delta, I have a great time with my family. As you can see by the above picture, they are growing up as Red Sox fans and that is why there are two daggers aimed at my head.
You have a degree in Political Science. What job did you plan to get with that, back in the day?
I was very close to attending law school, but I luckily did an internship the summer before enrolling into a full time program. I don’t want to offend the thousands of lawyers reading the Silly Series, but my experience was analogous to the Bill Murray movie, “Groundhog Day.” Each day, I would wake up, work with the same documents, hear bickering between two opposing lawyers about the meaning of a word in a particular context, and go home at 2:30AM. Rinse. Repeat.
I quickly realized that this was not for me and focused my attention on technology. I thought I would avoid lawyers in my professional career, but that was naïve. I now deal with them on a daily basis as I try to explain to them that we do not have a fleet of cars at Keystone and we do not need car insurance language within their professional services agreements.
Last week, as part of a trip to visit the Yahoo! mother-ship in Sunnyvale and other goodness, I attended the 
It is time to turn our jingle bells to 
