Yesterday, Ben Robison, Ben Swanson, and I competed in the final round of the Omniture Web Analytics Competition held by BYU’s eBusiness Center. We were given access to analytics data inside of SiteCatalyst for CostumeCraze.com. We then were required to dive into the data, define Key Performance Indicators, find an area of the site that needs improving, and make recommendations based on analytic data findings. The grand prize was $5,000 to the winning team.
We worked really, really hard on this. In just the last few days before the finals, we spent at least 13 hours together as a team, and 10 or more hours individually putting together reports, screen shots, and trying to make our recommendations bullet-proof.
The competition went well. We had practiced hard, and we had anticipated and prepared for many of the questions that we were asked. My team was awesome. Both Bens contributed a ton of insight into the whole process.
We only got to see one other presentation during the finals, since we were the 3rd of 4 to present. The presentation that we saw was really good. I wish I could have seen the other two, because I heard those were really good also and focused on areas that we hadn’t even considered in our research/presentation.
Anyways, we live in the Information Era, and the web and web analytics are becoming increasingly important. I’m glad we had this experience, and I now feel confident enough to do SiteCatalyst implementations and analysis for anyone who needs it.
Hey, congrats again Jimmy! You guys were hands down the best. It was surprising, however, to see how the other teams placed… The team that came in second was a SHOCKER!!! We all thought they were the worst presentation, by far. Steve Wirig’s was great, and he deserved second, but you guys had – like you said – such bullet-proof recommendation and such that you were easily the best.
Congratulations again my friend! I’m infinitely jealous because I need a new laptop, but I’m sure you kids can find a good use for all the money.
I’m buying the wife a Nintendo Wii and the iPod/Nike+Shoes/Nike+iPod Sport Kit for myself. The rest is going into the stock market =)
Well done… can you post any of the presentation or is that under some kind of NDA?
Ben, buying the wife a Wii? Sure…. and Homer really did get the bowling ball for Marge. =)
Congrats Jimmy! That’s sweet. Do you ever sleep?
Nice work guys. I’m Sr. Director of Product Marketing at Omniture and I heard that all of the finalist presentations were awesome. You should feel great about coming out on top – esp. given such high caliber competition.
Kind regards,
CP
Nice work Jimmy! I was bumbed when you couldn’t be on my team for last semester’s competition but it looks like you definitely didn’t need me to win. Your team by far had the best framework. Nice work!
Well done. I really didn’t think you guys had a chance against my team, but I guess I was wrong. Feel free to buy me something with the prize money.