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Why? Well, Let Me Whip Out My Crystal Ball…

I love analytics and as in any loving relationship, you take the good with the bad. Depending on your definition of analytics, the bad is usually in regards to intent. No data set in the non-VoC view of analytics will show you intent. You can get at dependencies, probabilities, and even conversions, but not intent. And what it the one question you get all the time from your marketing cohorts… “Well, why is that?”

I recently took a trip through an analytics solution that gave me some interesting data using a mass inferential model. Nothing new really, this particular company just did it well and applied it to online visitation. It was very interesting in regard to intent. To my surprise and disappointment, my client looked at the data and poo-poo’d it because the implied intent of customers didn’t match the objectives of the organization.

Everybody catch that? “We’ll disregard the audience so we can service the audience better.” Well, nice working with you… I’ll take my check now please while you’re still in business.

Generally speaking, non-disruptive analytics won’t give you intent. Further, business objectives set in a vacuum where there’s no feel for awareness and preference can yield very questionable results. Without the understanding of expectations and how you meet customer needs. What does analytics do for you in this regard? My experience says that at best you have dependencies, probabilities, and aggregated behaviors. If you’re lucky enough to have an organization that puts time into strategy, not just tactical execution, the case needs to be made for determining intent.

Why is intent important? Well, again, how can you meet customer needs without knowing their expectations? Here’s a fun read by Avinash that ties intent with business objectives: http://adage.com/digital/article?article_id=127251

Bottom line, you’re going to run into data sets that are sometimes contrary to the hypothesis and fail to meet business objectives. Be sure to scope the assumptions of the problems before you set out to build or correct. If you are an analyst who is called to untangle the cords and figure out why, ask yourself about the intent of customers.

I’ve mentioned in previous post the coming storm of web analytics. Those that will come out on top will have a broad-reaching business intelligence approach to how data is used in making actionable strategies. Don’t be afraid to ask the questions and evangelize thought-leadership no matter your level within the organization. To be certain, you will get dismissed but hang in there. Results matter, intent is revealing, and action is key.