If you want to improve the usability of your website, increase revenue, decrease customer service costs, or change any other critical business metric\u2014there is only one tried-and-true way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Acting on actionable insights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Actionable insights are… well, they\u2019re insights that you can act on.<\/p>\n
Actionable insights are not:<\/p>\n
Instead, actionable insights look more like this:<\/p>\n
Actionable insights have 2 equal and essential ingredients: data and analysts (human beings).<\/p>\n
Data can come from lots of different places:<\/p>\n
Analysts can also come from lots of different places:<\/p>\n
Look beyond the auto-generated reports in your analytics tool. As humans, analysts have several advanced features not found in Google Analytics or Omniture\/Adobe. They have storytelling skills, problem-solving skills, the ability to see larger patterns and understand context. And they have unlimited curiosity.<\/p>\n
Dive into the data, yes, but not just any data. Looking at\u00a0data in aggregate is almost always useless. Total site visits? Nope.\u00a0Total natural search traffic? Just say no.<\/p>\n
To be useful, data must be segmented into smaller, more meaningful slices. Block out the noise, and instead focus only on HIGH VALUE traffic, behaviors, and outcomes.<\/p>\n
Does it really matter how many total blog visits you had last week? Not really. Most of those visitors view a single\u00a0page, then exit. Instead, focus on the posts or types of posts that drove engagement or outcomes. Your actionable insight is that certain types of posts create more engagement or outcomes than other types of posts. (So, go create more of what works, less of what doesn’t!)<\/p>\n
Engagement and outcomes will be defined by what\u2019s important to your business. For some, number of page views might mean engagement. For others, it might mean tracking specific pages or events.<\/p>\n
Connect your analysts to your UX researchers. Encourage them talk to each other and share their findings on a regular basis.<\/p>\n
The data crunchers can report what<\/em> happened. Your UX researchers can tell you why<\/em>.<\/p>\n Inversely, if your UX researchers spot a red flag, your analysts can quantify it.<\/p>\n For example, if your UX team\u00a0notices that several usability test participants have trouble retrieving their forgotten password \u2014 your analysts can tell you that only 50% actually complete the password reset process (the rest abandon the site). Now, not only do you have an actionable insight, you can also quantify\u00a0lost revenue.<\/p>\n\n\nRelated Articles<\/h2>\n\n\n