Introduction
Each consulting engagement starts with an initial needs assessment. This phase is designed to bring me up to speed on the following:
- An understanding of the core business goals of the client and how their web site ties into that.
- Important site functionalities / tools / deficiencies / needs.
- Report types available / report needs.
Initial Deliverables
After the initial needs assessment, I usually provide a findings summary. It is designed to nail down the specifics of what needs to be done:
- A summary of identified goals (high level / site specific). This section sets the stage for what needs to be tracked and measured.
- Proposed metrics relevant to the client’s goals / business. This section will clearly state the relevance and uses of each metric – what each means and how it should be interpreted in relation to tracking specific goals.
- A proposal of relevant analysis that needs to be conducted e.g. Internal Search Analysis and how it drives conversion / ROI. This section examines core site functionality and how it impacts the achievement of overall site goals. It then proposes a list of relevant analysis the client needs to focus on to get the most insights.
- Draft of key management dashboards to highlight key metrics identified. This just shows what the dashboard will look like and bubbles up what is really important.
Implementation Phase
This is where the rubber meets the road. We get to actually start going through the to-do items in the proposed framework. It usually entails the definition and setup of the proposed metrics in the web analytics tools and build of the proposed dashboards.
Additional Items
This is where I can work through special analysis for the client around key topics – e.g. how does site search impact conversion? What are the key bottlenecks in the conversion funnel? How engaged are site visitors and what drives user engagement e.t.c.