benrobb

Corporate Blogging

And the last piece that I was waiting for has fallen into place.  I’m now officially the newest member of the Omniture Blogging team.  Find my analytics related posts at http://blogs.omniture.com/author/brobison/.

Manager of Market Insight

Or Moving on Part 2

I was waiting for one last thing to become public before I wrote this post, but it’s not happening as fast as I thought, so I’ll leave it out and catch you up later.

One of the things I discovered about myself is that I am a designer at heart.  I love digging into a particular issue, understanding it from all angles, and brainstorming a solution.  When it comes to discovery and exploration, that is where my interest and talents are.

I’m not particularly bad at implementing things, I just don’t enjoy it as much, which means it doesn’t receive my full attention, and I find myself looking for the next challenge.  In the technology world, that always means I’m looking for the latest gadgets.  In the business world, it means I like small teams where roles are ambiguous, job descriptions are in flux, and there’s lots of changes to mix things up.

My new job has a little implementation and a lot of design.  Perfect.

In a nutshell, my job has three main responsibilities.  First, I’ve inherited and now own the Omniture implementation inside of the Omniture suite, measuring how our customers are actually using our applications (very much like an Omniture customer would measure how their users are using the website).  The current design was created during a day where everything was pretty much web-based.  It’s been extended a bit and we’ve got more mileage out of it than was ever intended, but it’s time to rethink a few things in an Omniture world that’s expanding beyond the web.

Second, I believe all companies struggle with data in silos.  Omniture has gone to great lengths to build a foundation where data is shared, and I’ll be working to define behavioral metrics, integrate them with the flow of information, and get them into the hands of decision makers.

Finally, I belong to a team known as the Emerging Business team.  This is a small team of extremely bright folks that are looking for new business opportunities.  They liaise closely with the business development team exploring technologies, running Proofs of Concept with customers, and various other things to see if new developments in the industry (online or off) could be a viable business.  The tie for me is that we hope to glean some insight into the trends taking place in the market provide some extra direction for out efforts.  And there are a few things I’m looking into myself.

So that’s the run-down.  Some of it I know I’m good at, some of it is completely new.  All of it is challenging and extremely interesting.  Success is defined very differently with long-term objectives and lots of rope to go with it.  But I believe I’m up to the challenges and I plan on giving it my best effort.

Notes from the Bedside

I love the complexity of what I do at work, but I don’t particularly enjoy it when it keeps me awake at night.  Sometimes I find myself laying in bed for an hour or two at a time, in the middle of the night, simply because my brain just won’t turn off.  I’ll find my thoughts looping through different scenarios and challenges I’m facing.  During this time of absolutely zero distraction, however, I find that I can often achieve a state of mental clarity that allows me to see solutions that I simply wouldn’t come up with during the daylight hours.

When that happens I think, “I have to remember that in the morning,” but the truth is that it rarely happens.  Until now.  Not that I can still remember it in the morning, but I’ve taken to writing them down at night.  On the night stand next to my bed, I have a notepad, a pen, and a small pen-light so that I can write down the thoughts that keep racing from one side to the other.

The two-sided benefit is that I don’t have to remember anymore, but it also helps me get back to sleep.  My theory is that because I want to remember these things, my sub-conscious keeps bringing them up, so I have trouble actually getting it out of my head.  Once it’s written down, my sub-conscious decides it can take a rest, which allows the rest of me to get back to sleep as well.  Psychology isn’t my strong point however, so feel free to call me out.

Often the light of day reveals that my midnight brilliance is more closely associated with madness, but more frequently, it proves to be just the solution that I needed.  If you have a similar problem, I’d recommend a notepad and pen at your bedside.  You might just sleep better at night.

P.S.  For those who prefer electronic notes to paper ones, I’ve got a geek crush on Evernote.

Tags: notes, productivity, sleep

SiteCatalyst Blogging

For all those who come here looking for SiteCatalyst related information, I highly recommend you follow Adam Greco’s blog, the Omni Man.  Adam worked in the industry for many years as a SiteCatalyst customer, then worked for Omniture for a few years, and now he’s back out in the industry.  His blog is dedicated to helping people get more from the Omniture tools they’ve got.  He’s got one-of-a-kind insight into actually using SiteCatalyst because he’s got the view from the outside in and the inside out.

My own (very basic) implementation of SiteCatalyst tells me that variations on “Site Catalyst” are my most popular internal search terms, and since I don’t write much on the topic anymore, you may find some value in what Adam is writing.

On Moving and Moving On

For about 2 1/2 years now, I’ve been working at Omniture as a business consultant, helping companies to create measurement strategies, uncover optimization opportunities, and run their analytics programs.

Besides the incredible amount of learning I’ve been able to do specifically related to the analytics field, I’ve also learned a lot about effectively managing my time, successfully managing my team, setting prioties, making estimates, setting deadlines, and in general, being a professional.

For the past few months, I’ve been feeling like I’ve been on a plateau, doing the same kinds of things (and doing them well, after all, my work is my brand) repeatedly, but not really learning anything new or working on things I found particularly challenging.  In addition, I made some personal discoveries, and realized that the defined career path was headed in a direction that I really didn’t want to go.  I figured it was time to find a new path.

I didn’t feel like leaving Omniture, I love the company, and I love the direction that we’re going, but I needed some new challenges.  I told my management that I was looking around and I started to branch out into my network within the company see what other opportunities might be available.

I found one that fits my desires in all respects, and as of August 1st, I’m the new Manager of Market Insight.  More info coming soon.