OK, I think we’ll go ahead and get started.

0:42
Welcome.

0:42
For those of you that are here, welcome.

0:44
I know some people are are still coming into the room.

0:48
This session is called From Zero to Hero, Your path to career success.

0:52
This is about your digital analytics career.

0:56
You know the digital analytics landscape is constantly changing.

1:00
You can easily get overwhelmed by all the information and all the different choices.

1:06
So this is a way for you to get a clearer understanding of what your choices are, what you might want to focus on.

1:12
We’re joined today.

1:14
Our presenter is Anil Batra.

1:16
Anil is the strategic advisor at Optizent Academy.

1:20
He’s somewhat of a legend in our industry.

1:23
He’s a legendary educator, I’m gonna put it that way.

1:27
He has taught on so many topics, SQL, SQL, SQL.

1:32
He’s taught on Big Query, He’s taught on Google Analytics, Marketing Automation, probably some other areas that I don’t even know about.

1:40
But he is definitely a legendary educator in our field and we are happy to have him today to talk to us today about your career path and some of the choices and making good choices for your career.

1:52
So with no further ado, I’m going to turn it over to you and Neil, Thank you, Kim.

1:57
Thank you for the introduction.

1:59
Legendary.

2:02
All right.

2:03
So I’ve got something more to add to my title now.

2:07
But yes, I have been teaching analytics for pretty much 17 years now and I always get confused in how long I’ve been working in this field.

2:16
I’ve been working for pretty much 20 years.

2:20
Somebody I had another presentation this morning when I was talking about Google and Explorer and they were talking about like 17 plus years.

2:27
I’m like I do not know who’s counting.

2:29
Now it’s after 15.

2:31
Nobody counts how many more years you have right here.

2:34
So today I’m going to be talking about your particular success, Zero to hero.

2:40
How do you go from being starting in the career to really excellent in the career and choosing the path where you want to go before that?

2:50
I’m going to start with just about me so that you can understand, get a little bit more context on who I am and what I’ve been doing.

2:58
As I said, 20 plus years in digital marketing and analytics.

3:02
I’ve got Bachelor of Technology.

3:04
I did Electronics Engineering from India and then Masters in University of from University of Tennessee and then also MBA from University of Washington where sometimes I teach classes as well, frequent speaker at various conferences.

3:21
I was on the board of PAA years ago, local symposiums that you might have attended.

3:28
Those who are one of some of the things that I was, I’m proud of having.

3:32
Involved in and starting LED digital marketing and analytics for various agencies.

3:38
Started a company in 2007, sold in 2008.

3:42
Right now these days I’m involved in Optizent.

3:46
There are two parts to Optizent.

3:48
One is Optizent Academy, which is my passion teaching, training.

3:53
That is what I’ve been doing for 17 plus years.

3:57
I Love Actually.

3:57
I used to teach in tutor when I was a kid.

3:59
I used to do math and science tutoring.

4:03
I just love the whole aspect of giving the information and the more you give, the more you kind of learn.

4:10
So that’s why I’m passionate about this field.

4:13
Optus and again is part of that.

4:15
Here are some of the places that where I have taught, you know, still British Columbia Microsoft Identity program for that.

4:21
These are other than DAA and events that I do, you know still Washington and British.

4:27
Yeah, Bellevue College, which is local College in Seattle area.

4:33
Hundred 153 countries where my students are.

4:38
This map shows all these dots.

4:40
The bigger the dot, the most students in that country.

4:42
That location by 153 countries.

4:46
Over 40,000 students so far in past 17 years.

4:52
Some of the clients I worked with, some of them I have done training programs for them as well.

4:59
So that was about me.

5:00
Let’s talk about your career path and where.

5:04
How can you go from where you are to the next level to make it easy, because it’s very easy to get distracted.

5:13
And like all these things are happening around the career, you can take several parts of interactions.

5:20
I have created this simple model that is kind of linear in fashion.

5:25
Nothing happens in linear, but you’ll see there are things that you are doing that progresses you from being a dreamer, which is define them in these 6-7 levels.

5:37
So you start from level 0, which is your dreamer level, all the way to becoming a leader in analytics.

5:43
There are steps in the middle where you’re learning, you’re doing certain stuff, so I will go through this content this these levels 1 by 1 so that you can understand what it takes to be at that level and what it takes to move to the next level.

6:00
This will give you a clear understanding.

6:02
I’m also trying to assign certain titles that come along with these levels.

6:08
Even though every company is different, every organization assigns things differently.

6:14
But this will give you sort of a guideline to see how you can move from one step to the other, what things you have to focus on or what things people focus on that level so that you can, you can you know work on those and move to the the next level.

6:32
But before I go into these levels, let’s talk about digital analytics.

6:37
This is one of the things that I see many people who start at the dream world level which is like I I am in, I want to be in digital analytics.

6:45
I they’re dreaming about it.

6:48
They are not clear on what digital analytics is.

6:51
Many folks even who have certain number of experience like few years of experience in the field lose sight of what digital analytics is.

7:01
So I want to make sure we’re clear on that.

7:04
Digital analytics is measurement, collection, analysis and reporting on digital data for the purpose of understanding, optimizing various digital touch points, websites, apps, marketing channels both offline and online, right.

7:17
So we’re bringing all this together.

7:19
Digital is not in isolation, but the key here is its measurement collection.

7:24
So in this collection and piece, your tools come into play.

7:28
A lot of people just stop right there, measurement and collection and they they do reporting, but analysis is where they’re not focusing enough on.

7:38
However, that is a key piece of you getting from one step to the next step.

7:43
So we’ll talk about that.

7:46
The terms that you hear in the industry, digital analytics, web analytics, marketing analytics and there are a few others digital analytics before when I was on the board of DAA, we were called Web Analytics Association, but we know website is just one piece of the puzzle.

8:04
Digital analytics includes other digital channels and we have to account for those and even like the scope is even getting bigger, you know any advertising that happens on TV offline also has an impact on digital digit, Anything that happens in digital has an impact on offline, in store etcetera.

8:25
So all these pieces are coming together and I think the tools are evolving themselves.

8:30
Analytics tools are also evolving to account for those things.

8:34
So you’ll hear still, you’ll hear different terms.

8:37
I work with some clients where they still call the group web analytics even though we do more than web analytics in that group.

8:44
Marketing analytics is another term that gets thrown in because digital mainly is used for marketing.

8:50
Digital analytics is mainly used for marketing analytics.

8:54
However, digital analytics does not have to be just about marketing analytics.

9:00
So these circle kind of represent that.

9:02
Also marketing analytics has certain other aspects which are beyond digital.

9:08
But again, these circles are coming in all together is where the industry is heading.

9:14
The roles that I have divided them in four buckets, technical reporting, analysis and insights and optimization, experiment, experimentation.

9:26
So all the roles that you look at in digital analytics can be divided into these buckets.

9:34
As you move through you can see which where you fit.

9:38
They all have to go come together at some point and we’ll talk about that.

9:42
As I’m going through this success path.

9:47
You’ll also hear the term data analytics or data analyst.

9:51
It’s a data analyst is a broader term for anybody who conducts any type of data analysis.

9:56
Digital analyst is focused on digital channels.

10:01
So you know, I have had students who have started as a digital analyst, then they went into other directions.

10:08
I came from looking at offline and other data as a data analyst and then started looking at digital channels.

10:15
So people go all the way where you know you can be one day focusing on digital channels and next day you might be looking at other channels, other data as well.

10:25
So you’ll hear that down as well.

10:27
And then there is data science or data scientist.

10:30
Data scientist actually is a technical role, much more technical than by data analyst role or digital analyst role.

10:39
It includes algorithm development, data inferences, predictive modeling to solve any business problem, just not digital site of the business.

10:50
Digital analytics teams now are starting to have dedicated data scientists in their teams as well.

10:57
In past, we generally relied on other teams to give us the information that we need.

11:04
But now I’m seeing more and more teams are evolving and they’re having data scientists in their teams as well.

11:12
Our focus is going to be entirely on digital analyt analytic side of things.

11:17
So this is your path.

11:19
I’m going to go into details on these paths.

11:22
So if you have any questions, feel free to put those questions in the chat and I will be answering those.

11:30
Oh, I just saw that.

11:31
I opened a chat and I saw Michael.

11:33
I actually attended one of Mr.

11:36
Patra’s courses at UBC some years ago.

11:39
OK, Michael, I hope you had a great experience there in UBC.

11:46
So in this part, let’s start from being a dreamer.

11:51
What does a dreamer look like, a person who’s dreaming about this?

11:55
That person has a basic understanding of digital analytics, though.

11:59
I’ve come across people who have had no experience in digital analysts.

12:04
They have just heard the term.

12:06
I had actually one student who came in, and this is a class at Bellevue College here.

12:12
He came to my he came to my class accidentally because he was taking some other class and he had to take in one more class to finish his coursework.

12:22
So he looked at my class and was OK.

12:24
This fits in my schedule.

12:25
I’m just going to go attend this class.

12:27
He came in and had no understanding of digital analytics, no experience because no understanding, no experience though he was actually, it’s an interesting story because he was playing with certain business ideas, like some franchise model, he was doing some chiropractic work and etcetera.

12:48
He wanted to become a user experience person.

12:52
So that’s what the courses he was taking, and he ended up taking my class in addition because he needed to finish his coursework with one class.

13:00
And right now Fast forward today, he’s actually a data analyst working for one of the public companies and he told me when he came in, pretty much not making any money whatever his chiropractic business was not doing good.

13:15
Got his first job, whatever salary.

13:18
I never asked how much he got or what he was making, but he got his first job in analytics after that class.

13:25
And I think it’s four years, four years later, he has quadrupled his salary.

13:29
So I’m like, OK, no matter what he started, quadrupled is a lot.

13:35
And you know, that’s how he started with no experience, no understanding, accidentally came in the class, stumbled upon it and just took off from there.

13:45
We spent half an hour on his resume.

13:47
He got his first job.

13:50
So that’s the dreamer who is now in the middle of that that success part, they might have some experience in other marketing fields and using very limited data in those fields.

14:01
So maybe e-mail marketer I get, I have a lot of students who come from SEO background or they’ve been doing marketing strategy and they’re trying to come into this field, want to learn and grow in digital analytics.

14:16
Then the next level at this point you’re just dreaming, right.

14:19
So you don’t need to do anything.

14:22
If you’re in that stage, just come on in and we’ll get you started in this career path.

14:29
Level one, what I call is a dab, somebody who has started to dabble with this in this field understands the role of web and digital analytics probably have attended a session.

14:39
I conduct a lot of free sessions, one of those in career paths, maybe they have attended that.

14:44
One understands what various tools provide and do in digital analytics ecosystem.

14:50
So there’s lots of tools, right, Google Analytics, Adobe Analytics, P Vic Pro, whatever.

14:56
These are very focused on web analytics, digital analytics part of the business.

15:01
But there are other tools as well, right is getting started with using these tools.

15:06
So they’re playing with it that maybe implementing Google Analytics using Google Tech Manager, Data Studio, maybe looking at, you know, e-mail marketing automation tools, whatever.

15:18
They’re getting the data from those uses some aspect of digital data.

15:24
And the title of this person generally is an analyst.

15:29
So I’ve tried to assign the titles for these levels.

15:32
You’re just starting out, you’re new, maybe a junior analyst and analyst.

15:37
Every company has a different, you know titles they give out.

15:41
But I’ve seen this is very consistent with somebody who starts either junior analyst or analyst.

15:48
Next level is Hustler and Hustler is acquiring deeper technical reporting and analysis skill.

15:55
They’re hustling and they’re like OK, how what can I do now?

15:57
I get it.

15:58
I I have used it.

16:00
I want to gain more experience by applying, right?

16:02
So they’re gaining experience by applying to real site business.

16:06
At this point.

16:07
They are not just, you know, some junior analysts pull this data for me, pull this data for me.

16:12
But they’re actively participating if they’re working in that organization, learning on the job, because every day they’re observing what the other people are doing, finding a way to push their technical limits.

16:27
And at this point, as I showed you, there are four different types of roles.

16:32
At this point, those roles are kind of meshed together.

16:35
Many organizations, you might be doing technical, you might be doing reporting, you might be doing some pieces of analysis.

16:42
But these guys, you know, Hustler is trying to figure out, OK, how what can I do?

16:46
Can I track this?

16:47
Can I do this?

16:48
How do I connect these two pieces?

16:50
Finding insights?

16:51
They’re looking at the data.

16:54
Most of their time is spent on reactive analysis.

16:57
Hey, my bounce rate is higher.

16:59
What happened?

17:00
Our conversions are low.

17:01
What happened?

17:03
They’re reacting to the situation and they’re given this work from senior analyst managers telling them to go look and get these scenarios, look at the data.

17:14
So technically they’re pushing their limits.

17:16
Insight analysis, they’re pushing their limits connecting insights to business folks.

17:22
That’s starting to learn how to connect those insights to the business objectives because a lot of time and digital analysts will end up doing analysis in isolation.

17:33
Pay, bounce rate is up, our, our conversions are lower or people are dropping off from this thing.

17:41
But those are very isolated incidents that are situations that are working on.

17:46
But at the Hustler Point, you’re like trying to figure out how do I connect it back, why is this important?

17:52
So that’s what I call a Hustler level.

17:55
So this is pretty easy at this point.

17:57
You have been in an organization and you are connecting with trying to connect the dots.

18:03
Title generally is senior analyst or even at some point you are manager during that phase.

18:10
Not that when you’re learning, but you are applying and you’re really pushing the limits, you could be promoted to a manager in certain scenarios.

18:18
Generally they’ll be a senior analyst.

18:22
Now if you are in a dabbler situation, look at what these guys are doing.

18:26
This should give you a good idea of what you need to focus on to get to that next level.

18:32
Then comes the performance.

18:34
Like performer level, this is where you have acquired advanced technical skills, you have hustle, you have figured out.

18:40
You’re learning, you’re learning deeper and you understand clearly how to take the data and apply it to business.

18:48
You know business objectives, goals that everything continues trying to achieve technical.

18:56
There are two aspects now.

18:57
Now this is where the differentiation starts to come in.

19:01
You can either go too deep technically or you can go too deep into the business side of things, which is the analysis.

19:10
Everybody has to do reporting at certain level, but in this point, technical might be doing different level of reporting than analysts are doing.

19:17
You’re doing advanced level tracking, learning JavaScript, working with various different tools, trying to integrate those tools and those tools might be I need to use APIs to pull this data or what tools can I use?

19:31
How does this data flow from here to there?

19:34
Technically, you’re pushing those limits.

19:36
You’re performing at that level where you’re not isolating yourself to one tool and one view of the data from the business standpoint.

19:46
You’re generating deeper insights, helping helping define business goals, metrics and KPI’s.

19:55
One of the things you have to do is, you know, not take these business goals and not everybody in the organization is clear about business goals.

20:05
I talk about this in my all my classes is.

20:09
It’s amazing for me to actually go in an organization where we are working as consultants.

20:15
And all it takes is to divide the people in different groups to figure out they don’t have a clear understanding of what the business objectives are, but the business rules are.

20:25
So combining them and then defining metrics and KPIs using the full ecosystem of digital data, quantitative and qualitative analysis.

20:37
So not only you’re using the full ecosystem which is connecting e-mail marketing, social media marketing, search marketing and marketing automation tools, but using the full ecosystem to dive deeper quantitative and qualitative analysis.

20:55
You might be converted to using third party data as well.

20:59
So as from the business side you’re pushing again the unknown.

21:03
So if you are at a hustler level, you want to become a performer.

21:07
Look at these things.

21:09
If you start to integrate those things in your hustler level, you’re already at a performer level.

21:16
So it just as a matter of time when you get promoted and move to the next level.

21:22
You’re using statistics, you’re learning and applying SQL.

21:26
One of the things is these days all the organizations are storing their beta in databases.

21:34
But this is how I started like a we were actually I came from the background where we were storing data in databases and then these tools which aggregated the data such as new analytics came along.

21:45
Now we’re seeing the reverse of it.

21:48
Companies are going back to pushing that data back in SQL.

21:52
GA 4 which came out has a native pipeline into Big Query and the reason that is because people have realized aggregated data can only give you certain level of insights.

22:05
To go deeper, to use statistics, as I’m saying, to combine the full ecosystem, you need granular data, and granular data sits in databases because that’s where you can process a lot of data.

22:19
For that you need to learn SQL.

22:21
If you don’t know SQL, you can’t pull that data, you can’t pull that data, you can’t conduct any kind of analysis.

22:27
So this is where you are pushing the limits.

22:30
And so I am now ready to go deeper.

22:33
Not just I’m contained in this tool, but I’m expanding it.

22:38
That’s the performer level.

22:39
You’re doing proactive analysis while you were doing reactive analysis, responding to things that were happening.

22:47
Bounce rate went up or conversion went down or the fallout is happening.

22:51
In these places you are proactively trying to find things that can move the needle.

22:57
Example is my team.

22:58
You know whenever we’re working some of the tasks of the team members are to do proactive analysis, proactively look at things that we the business hasn’t even thought they’re tied to all business objective.

23:12
But we’re looking at the data and applying those to see what can we do, how can we tell, how do you prepare for certain situation.

23:21
So holidays are coming.

23:24
You know Mother’s Day is coming, whatever that day is.

23:27
How can you look at the data and proactively tell the business what products, what e-mail marketing, what kind of stuff you should be doing, how far ahead you should be thinking about those things, what will make people buy or engage or help us achieve that objective.

23:46
That is proactive analysis.

23:48
So moving from reactive to proactive is where you are performing at the performer level.

23:55
Titles generally are senior manager and director at this level and there is an expert you move into developing actionable insight.

24:07
So I talked about proactive analysis.

24:08
Those proactive analysis gives you insights.

24:11
What’s happening now?

24:13
You have taken talking about taking actions on those things.

24:16
So not just providing the reports and insights, but like what can we do now and using multiple data sources, integrating online and offline data, integrating online first party and 3rd party data.

24:32
Third party data is something that most of the digital analysts do not dabble in up with.

24:40
This is where you will find a ton of information.

24:45
You know everything has an impact, whether it’s environment, whether it’s events that aren’t happening locally, whether it’s like some international news event that happened.

24:56
All those things like COVID cases, those things have an impact.

25:00
So overlaying COVID cases can tell you a story about what products are moving in your store and why they are moving, why people are buying those in certain location and not in the other locations.

25:11
When weather data has a huge impact, weather makes people too crazy.

25:16
Stuff you know.

25:18
And whether in one location has a different impact, same weather conditions have a different impact in one place compared to other.

25:28
Like 70° in Florida is likely people are going to run and buy sweatshirts, 70° in Seattle is going to be people are going to go buy T-shirts.

25:39
That is the impact it has.

25:40
So looking at those things you can overlay and see why people are behaving a certain way.

25:45
Certain products, certain fruits, things sell in different way depending on those weather conditions.

25:53
You have cross channel data, you’re using cross channel data to improve customer experience and campaign performance.

25:59
That is an expert.

26:00
Expert is going beyond what’s available in those reports.

26:04
Going beyond what normally people think about this is where you are performing at that level where proactively you’re providing stuff that is saying move, how can we move and make more money, how can we move forward that the organization.

26:21
So you’re planning and running AB test, constantly testing stuff, personalization, doing personalization and targeting and you know performer expert level, you could both be doing this you know but this is where your entire focus becomes on moving that needle forward move finding new opportunities, expanding those limits and title is generally a director but could be VP and some organizations.

26:51
Then you have in that this that’s the business side.

26:54
There is also a technical side of this.

26:57
If you are technical, let’s say you started out as implementing certain tags and now you’re moving into where you have pushed your technical limits.

27:05
You’ve learned JavaScript, you’re working on integration of various tools, developing and using APIs.

27:12
How do I pull data, how do I provide data, APIs could be, hey this data is coming, we know what’s happening on our site.

27:20
How can we send this data to our other parts of the business?

27:24
Maybe it’s the website personalization engine, maybe it’s the flow engine that works.

27:28
Maybe it’s the e-mail marketing tools that automatically triggers an e-mail you’re working on.

27:34
Those integrations technical folks will generally reach their peak in digital ethics at this point.

27:42
Some will continue to work on larger system integrations and go into other areas of business.

27:48
Many continue the implementation path because that’s what they’re satisfied with managing the team.

27:52
They’ll go from one company to another.

27:55
But generally what I’ve found is this is where your limits come in unless you try to go into other areas of business.

28:03
But people are, I’ve seen people will continue have been continued to do that or have been continuing to do that for years.

28:11
Title is again a director, same.

28:14
We talked about business.

28:16
Then you have a master level, you are a storyteller, You are influencing executive and data and insights.

28:27
So one of the trainings I do is a storytelling.

28:29
How do you connect, find, not only find the insights, but how do you influence the executives By telling the right story.

28:38
And one of the examples I’ve given my storytelling is which is it’s easy for people.

28:43
I’ve seen this.

28:44
Hey, our bounce rate is 90%.

28:47
Simple example, right 90%.

28:49
Nobody pays attention to your bounce rate of 90%.

28:52
Seriously, nobody cares because it’s hard to put that in context.

28:55
What does that mean?

28:56
Is it good?

28:57
Bad.

28:58
You can tell it’s bad, it should be this, but what does it mean now?

29:01
If you tell a story about how you know you could you are losing money or how it’s impacting the customer, that’s when it starts to come to life.

29:11
So let’s say if you’re spending X amount of money on advertising, let’s pick a number, say 10 million.

29:19
You have a $10 million campaign running.

29:21
You have a 90 LB percent bounce rate.

29:24
All of a sudden you can put that in context to tell a story.

29:27
Hey, you know, we are leaking $9 million in this campaign.

29:32
That’s when everybody pays attention.

29:33
Nobody pays attention to 90% bouncer.

29:36
What do you mean by leaking?

29:38
Well, 90% of the people who come from this campaign are leaving immediately without looking at any other pager.

29:45
So we’re only getting value from that one million.

29:48
Really.

29:49
What can we do?

29:50
That’s how you put the pieces together.

29:52
So you’re telling something, taking them through a journey.

29:55
This is a simple example.

29:56
Definitely.

29:57
I can’t cover what I cover in a day’s worth of session, but that tells me, like, you know how you tell a story, how you can influence executive with data, data and insights, But that’s what you’re doing.

30:09
At that level.

30:10
You drive the development of machine learning models, use various optimization processes and techniques including AI and ML, and your integrated scientists into various aspects of business.

30:24
You’re developing a vision for the organization, the entire organization, your organization, as well as the organization and your team.

30:35
That’s what you’re doing.

30:36
Title is generally Director of VP, most likely a VP.

30:39
At that level, then, you are a leader.

30:43
Develops and executes our vision for the organization, works closely with other executives, gets the required funding and support for the team.

30:51
So as you’re moving, think about what your boss is doing, and that’s what you need to focus on to move.

30:58
These are the things that you’ll need to focus on to go from one level to another, get the required funding and support for the team, grows and mentors the team.

31:07
That’s what makes you a leader.

31:10
You have moved through from being a dreamer to a leader.

31:13
Titles generally are VPSVP and Chief Electric’s officer.

31:16
I’m seeing this title more and more and remember years ago I had that title which was like nobody else had it, so they gave it to me and that was like 12 plus years ago.

31:28
But I’m seeing more and more Chief Electric’s officer titles coming up now and that’s what you are.

31:34
You know you’re a leader in your field and you’re thinking beyond just your team.

31:38
Obviously you’re going, but how do I integrate things into into the organization?

31:45
At that point, you will be responsible for other data, not just digital data at that point.

31:51
OK, so that is your zero to 0 paths success.

31:55
Now how much time do we have?

31:57
Do we have time I’m not looking at paying attention to.

32:03
Let’s see, we’re at about 3:32, so we’ve got about 20 minutes.

32:09
Oh, OK.

32:10
All right.

32:11
So let’s talk about, because I have other slides that you want to go through all those things and you know, don’t have time for to finish them.

32:20
So career progression, I throw out this success part.

32:23
I talked about the career progression.

32:26
You have analysts reporting analysts, technical analysts.

32:29
You can start from one of those positions.

32:31
Either way, you are in that dabbler position where you are kind of dabbling with these things to figure out what works for you.

32:40
Many people start there.

32:42
I’ve had people who start on the technical side of things they’re implementing, but then they gravitate towards more.

32:48
Hey, I love this data analysis.

32:50
Many people start with data analysis.

32:53
They’re dabbling with technical implementation.

32:57
They’re technically savvy.

32:59
They love that piece.

33:00
Like, hey, I can these pieces together.

33:03
You kind of can start from any of these positions.

33:06
Generally you’ll end up doing all of them and then you move to senior analyst role where you are given more responsibilities.

33:14
But now you’re trying to figure out whether you are going to be technical or reporting or analyst share.

33:21
That differentiation starts to happen.

33:24
By the time you’re Analytics Manager, Senior Manager, you have already figured out whether you’re a technical person who understands the business or whether you’re a business person who understands technical side of things.

33:36
You might be focusing on just on one aspect.

33:40
Then you have Director of Analytics where you have a team even like managers, senior manager level, you have a small team but director is overseeing a bunch of you know people.

33:51
If you are in an agency side of things, which I’ll cover in a few minutes, then you might have various accounts that you’re managing.

33:58
Then you move into VP of Analytics, Marketing Products.

34:01
A lot of people start to buy for.

34:04
I mean not buy for kid, but go take different paths at that point too.

34:08
Some end up in products, you know using the data to enhance those products and are going purely on the other side of marketing and some stay in analytics.

34:18
So I see a lot of people and I at that point moving in different directions of the business.

34:24
Then you have SVP, if you stay in that path, Analytics, you’ve got SVP, Chief Analytics Officer, Chief Marketing, Office, Education and Skills, various majors, business, marketing, stats, computer science.

34:39
I was telling you about one of the students.

34:42
I don’t think he had any of these like business or marketing background.

34:48
Not definitely not computer science or engineering stats background.

34:53
I don’t know what his actual background was, but you know I’ve seen people from various backgrounds coming in some.

35:03
What I’m seeing is some not in US but outside the US, MBA, many companies countries, they have a requirement of having an MBA for to be in a digital analytics role and that’s rare.

35:19
But at a senior level they are definitely requiring that, particularly India.

35:24
I see a lot of people from India that come in and take courses and they’re like do I need to get MBA as well because they are asking for MB.

35:32
AI don’t think it’s required, but it doesn’t if you’re in that country because that’s the norm of the country.

35:40
Excel.

35:42
Sorry.

35:42
Skills required are for if you aren’t going to be in reporting and focusing or starting your career in reporting, you can start anywhere you want.

35:50
Just pick up area you can be good at.

35:53
You can find your path into the carrier, Excel, PowerPoint, data visualization and SQL.

35:59
If you are going to be an analyst, optimization, analyst World, analytical skills you need.

36:05
You need SQL, some JavaScript because some technical skills you’ll require Data visualization, PowerPoint, Excel and the better.

36:14
The sooner you get into storytelling the better it is.

36:18
Technical role definitely.

36:20
You need JavaScript, HTML tool specific knowledge and SQLSQL not so much if you’re going to be in the implementation side of things.

36:29
Once you get into the integration side of things, that’s when you might need SQL as well.

36:36
And going deeper, which is data scientists role, then you’ll need SQL, R, Python And a bunch of other machine learning knowledge that you’ll need.

36:47
So type of companies that hire are categorized in three buckets.

36:52
Clients such as end users of digital analytics such as Amazon, Target Cap which are using digital analytics to help their business and there are two vendors, they sell digital analytics tool for example Google Analytics, Adobe Analytics, Pivic Pro etcetera.

37:09
These companies also have their consulting arm.

37:13
They need to help their their clients as well as their developing the tools.

37:17
So you can go and those and then there are consulting or digital agency.

37:24
They use multiple tools and provide services to various clients.

37:28
Tool vendors are specific to one tool.

37:31
Consulting agencies work with various tools.

37:34
Clients might have a mix of different tools.

37:37
So here consulting examples are Publicist, WPP, Accenture at CLTCS.

37:44
So I’m going to go through the pros and cons of these client sites so you can understand you know which are good for your career, which will help you move forward rows of client side, they are integrated into a company and the business.

37:57
So you are very much into that business.

38:00
You’re learning that business that helps you grow into other parts of the business.

38:06
If you decide, hey I’m going to start a digital analyst, but now I’m going to become a product manager, sure you can go in there.

38:13
You gain knowledge about specific company your growth is tied to a group value within the organization.

38:19
Could be a pro, could be a call.

38:22
Your growth is tight if your your group does good, hey you’re doing good.

38:27
Coins are experiences limited to one company, might be limited to one or two tools because that’s what they are using.

38:36
So you can only use the tools that they are using.

38:39
Many organizations, larger ones such as Microsoft or even Amazon, they have also their internal tools that they have built their own tools.

38:50
So you you are using that tool, but that tool has no applicability outside that organization, however the knowledge that scheme can be applied.

39:00
So one of the things that I always tell people is don’t think about the tools because tools come and go.

39:07
However, try to understand how they work because that inner working can be applied to other places.

39:13
So how is the data being collected?

39:15
How to use that data?

39:16
That’s what you need to focus on.

39:18
Even if you are a technical site, understanding the inner workings of that tool, the back the background of the you know of that tool, how it works will help you with any other tool.

39:32
I started with a tool called Digimon.

39:34
That tool does not exist anymore.

39:36
Actually.

39:36
Before that we were just taking the log files and putting in databases.

39:41
But once I understood the concept, it’s very easy for me to translate into any tool like GA 4K.

39:49
I started looking at the tool.

39:50
I got it like what this tool is doing and how it’s configured because I have that background knowledge of how the tools collect and format this data.

39:58
So it was very easy to translate that knowledge into the new fields.

40:03
So if that’s what I tell everybody to focus on, people who work at client side are referred as practitioners.

40:09
You’ll see that in conferences like these, they’re called practitioners.

40:13
I’m not sure who came up with that, though I practice.

40:15
I’m not called a practitioner because I’m not a client side.

40:20
Whether you become an expert in tool offered by the company, you have an opportunity to work with various times.

40:26
So that’s the probe.

40:28
You’re now expert in that tool.

40:29
You know how to use Adobe Analytics.

40:32
You can pull the data.

40:33
You can segment the data, you can, you know implement the data to.

40:39
You’re becoming whatever direction you decide.

40:41
You’re an expert in that tool.

40:44
You get opportunity to work with various sites and that is one of the benefits of working with vendors.

40:49
If you pick the right vendor, this could be a great opportunity for you to grow.

40:53
Because as the vendor tries to expand their offerings, you get a chance to work on a lot of things.

41:00
So not only just one web, altics or digital and its tool, but you’re bringing in other tools as well.

41:07
Comps are.

41:08
Your experience is limited to the tool offered by the company.

41:11
So if that tool goes away, you don’t have a place to go.

41:15
Though people do find positions because if they understand those, Networking Web Trends was one of those tools.

41:21
A lot of people were working at Web Trends when the tool went away, they had to find other positions.

41:27
They either you know people who understood they got TRA transferred their knowledge into other tools like Adobe Analytics or Google Analytics consulting companies.

41:37
The Pro is a lot of different clients.

41:39
So you get to not only work in one vertical, one business, but you can choose and work in different verticals.

41:46
One day you could be in travel the industry, other day you could be working for a medical company.

41:51
But idea of verticals but idea of roles, you can do technical find management if you’re working for those companies like client side, you are assigned a role.

42:01
Generally it’s hard to break out of that role.

42:03
You’re working for a vendor, you are let’s say.

42:06
Most likely they’ll hire you for implementation.

42:08
So it’s technical role.

42:10
It’s hard to break out two other roles.

42:12
But here in a consulting company you could be technical, you’re doing client management, you’re doing analytics.

42:18
I prefer this to start for somebody who’s starting out and not for a mid career person opportunity to work with various tools.

42:30
So you get to see all those tools and then you can decide which one, which one to specialize or work with.

42:35
Too many clients to manage and work with, you have to do a lot of juggling.

42:40
It’s a very ambiguous situation.

42:42
Most of the time you walk in, do not know anything about the client.

42:46
You do not have full understanding.

42:47
You only get to know what they tell you.

42:50
And then you’re managing clients after clients engagement.

42:53
That’s time can be very, very shallow.

42:56
Hey, just implement this, say, create this report or they’re running this AB desk, let’s analyze that.

43:01
It’s very very shallow work sometimes.

43:04
However, if the agency is integrated into the client work long they have been working longer then you can have a lot of you know then the work is not.

43:15
But if it’s a new client you just started working, you are just working with them.

43:21
On the surface there job is dependent on client budgets, very very risky for people who work here.

43:29
Your job can go away anytime much harder if you’re working for client in the vendor and much easier.

43:36
I’ve seen for agencies and clients I’ve seen where the entire floor of the agency was let go because one client decided they will have the budget to see whatever and as a result you can’t pay your employees, they have to.

43:56
Job is very much dependent on client budgets.

43:58
You don’t have control over those like one agency and am I going to name the name?

44:03
We had the same situation.

44:04
It wasn’t even the people who are working on my engagement.

44:07
It was their CEO and their CEO could not come to an agreement on the billing rent, on the budget.

44:17
And as a result, people who are working and working for years are like, this is what happens.

44:25
So this is a risky, but I think it’s a good way to start and learn.

44:29
But that’s why I don’t think it’s good for my this is my personal opinion, not good for mid career, senior level positions.

44:38
What’s right for you?

44:39
It’s a personal preference.

44:40
You have know the pros and cons.

44:41
So we’ll see what the pros and cons are, but guidance, mentorship to get to the next level, whichever level, assess yourself which level you are, what kind of guidance and mentorship you’ll need, whether there is a path for you, you know, to get to that leader position.

44:58
If that’s not there, then I would say that’s not a place for you.

45:03
What training opportunities you’re going to get.

45:06
If they’re not providing any training opportunities, there’s no point in going for a company.

45:10
It’s a both give and take.

45:12
You want to learn, you want to give your time, you want to do all everything that it takes to be successful.

45:18
You need something in return, opportunities to grow and do different things.

45:23
So what’s right for you, You have to decide.

45:26
So that was your path to this success.

45:30
Here is something that I wanted to highlight.

45:32
I have a bit become a digital and web analyst program, which you can actually.

45:37
There is right now it’s in the wait list.

45:40
And Kim, we are also providing that to DAA, right.

45:43
So whenever we decide that yes we are, there’s a discount for members who want to sign up.

45:51
So yes, definitely take advantage of that too.

45:55
Move your career to the next level if that’s if that’s what you’re seeking to do, yeah.

46:03
And then Optus and Academy also has an inner circle, which is being inner circle, my inner circle where you can come in to get courses.

46:11
We meet, we have a twice a month meeting.

46:15
We talk about trends, we talk about issues everybody’s facing.

46:19
It’s a place to be where you can come and just be with other digital analysts and there is a coupon code that I’ve attached with this one.

46:29
If somebody wants to join, then they get that discount and then DAA workshops so I can back a lot of DAA workshops.

46:36
Those are great places because and I’m working with students and making sure they’re successful.

46:42
We do SQL workshop as Kim was saying earlier, dot topic teach different topics, but DAA workshops are also available for individuals for organizations.

46:54
We also do DA workshops at at your organization.

47:00
So if you have a bunch of people and want to be trained or want to learn how to use data, there are various options available for you.

47:07
That’s how you can all collectively move forward.

47:11
So that’s all.

47:12
I have questions at this point.

47:23
OK.

47:23
So if we if we have no questions, I I have a question Aneel as you were talking about some of the different tools for someone that is looking to follow the more business side as opposed to the technical side, the more business side, what tools?

47:42
I know you mentioned some, but what tools are are the most important for me to get stronger in in order to keep moving along the path on the business side.

47:52
On the business side I would say is more than tools.

47:55
Tools definitely.

47:56
I mean you know many organizations look at tools, but I have also seen where organizations completely say I don’t care about the tools.

48:04
People like me, I don’t care about the tool.

48:06
If you’re going to be in the business side, I want to see how analytical you are.

48:10
So things that you should actually learn at that point is your data analysis skills.

48:17
SQL, if you want to learn will be helpful.

48:21
And you know, learning a data visualization tool like Data Studio or Tableau enterprises use Tableau more than anything else.

48:30
Those will help.

48:31
Great, great, thank you.

48:34
But yeah, any any kind of tool.

48:36
So most of the people who are starting out, they can’t learn Adobe Analytics, they’ll learn Google Analytics because it’s free right?

48:43
But understanding how the reports are, where inner workings of that you can apply it.

48:49
Like for me, I have worked in different tools, I do not work with Adobe, but I can sit in a meeting and I can question and I can ask the right questions because I know how it works.

49:00
So I can say hey in Adobe how do I get this?

49:03
Because I’m trying to understand this.

49:04
So all I’m thinking is how do I apply this to my business?

49:08
Got it, got it.

49:09
We have one more, one quick, one more question.

49:13
We’re almost out of time, but Michael said you mentioned third party data versus first party data.

49:18
What are some examples of third party data that we could use?

49:22
Good question.

49:23
Yeah, some of the third party data I mentioned is you know weather being one weather data is available, you can use that.

49:32
I’ve seen analysis where somebody just pulled out the rainy day rain data and they were able to find deeper insights by looking at when it was raining, what was happening all night.

49:44
So it’s you can we will do sunny days.

49:47
You know when it’s when it’s sunny in that area people are out, they’re not shopping, maybe they shop on mobile phones at that time.

49:53
So those kind of insights can help you figure out what you need to how your consumers are behaving and what you need to do the products they buy.

50:03
I mean one we did a lot of analysis of one of the biggest retailer in the world and we used weather data, we used traffic data for them.

50:13
We do did event data, event local event data, sports, you know what are happening.

50:20
We use school opening and closing data to figure out what products sell and some interesting insights.

50:27
I mean we use competitive index data to figure out how competitive the landscape was.

50:32
One interesting thing that I found out, we were generally when people think about competitive landscape, they think about lower price like you lower the price in a competitive environment to get your product to sell more.

50:46
For this particular retailer the more competitive the landscape was and guarantee this was offline, but it applies any, any situation the more competitive the the area was the higher the higher was the average selling price of the toy.

51:05
Oh wow, yeah.

51:07
But during holiday season, the reason that we, since we can’t for sure say without testing it out, the reason we think was everybody was advertising toys.

51:19
When everybody’s advertising toys, it’s like all your competitors are also advertising.

51:24
So it’s like you don’t have to tune them into buying toys.

51:28
All you have to do is now be your brand awareness, their brand awareness, but they are the cheapest place.

51:35
So people go there because, hey, I’m going to buy toy.

51:38
I like it, but let me go there and see, you know, when I buy stuff, I go to Amazon automatically see if Amazon has a cheaper price, right?

51:46
In this case, when you’re driving to a store, you drive there and you’re when you’re there.

51:50
It doesn’t matter at that point because that factor is gone.

51:54
So you see a toy and you say, oh, that toy is 50.

51:58
I really like the $75 toy because this will be good and there was other data that we looked at it was that age actually demographic of that.

52:07
So we overlaid demographic, we overlaid that time it was older population during Christmas time in a highly competitive environment world buying higher price toys and from them, I think we’re gonna, I’m sorry, Anil, we’re gonna, we’re gonna have to end.