What is the Value of Questions?
Posted by antfoodz on April 7, 2008
“If you know the answer, you most likely asked the wrong question”
What is life, if not one question that we seek to answer through all of our days? Questions are the currency by which analyst are paid. It is not our job to get answers, any person with enough time can find a way to get answers, it is our job, and our quest to ask the right question. When you walk into a problem, it’s not the how of getting the answer that bothers me, but first figuring out what question to answer.
When looking at a property, I am charged with improving things. That is not normally what is directly said to me, but that is the reality of the situation. Whether it is coming in and looking at SEO, or page testing, or revenue models, or site analysis, the question is never what have we done, but what can we do that will maximize our performance going forward. There are a million directions that you can choose, but knowing which one, where, how, is what will ultimately drive value for the site.
One of the largest dilemmas that I face is when someone will dump a large set of data on me, and expect me to find some needle in a haystack for them. I always come back to them and work with them to first find the question they seek to answer. The data has no meaning unless it has context. The context is the business need, the site, the users, everything. Understanding it, understanding where we are what we are trying to accomplish, that provides meaning, and only then will the data set provide the slightest bit of value. Whether it is testing elements on a page, optimizing a single revenue stream, looking for engagement opportunities or looking at general site traffic patterns and KPIs, they all only have value if they are attached to some question.
Look at our tools, be it a data solution, data warehousing, tracking, qualitative research or quantitative analysis. Do any of them actually provide value? No, they are simply tools by which a user can do something with. With out the understanding of what it is you are looking for, and the need it meets, these tools by themselves are nothing. If you have a question, and an understanding of which tools fit which needs, then the answer becomes a matter of practice, and not a measure of skill.
What is a KPI but the answer to the question what are the best measures of your growth? What is a test, but a way to answer which is the best option to get users to do some behavior? What is the best behavior? What users? What is the value of that behavior in the first place? What is value to this site? There is nothing I do that does not start with a question.
As you can see, the problem with getting answers, is that they drive more questions. It is a never ending quest, nearly quixotic in nature, to keep finding the best question. It is this quest that drives me when I wake up, it is this quest that drives me when I go to sleep. It is the question, and the next question, and the need to know the answer, which defines an analyst, which defines our ability to add value to a property, and to ourselves.
