Hi Will! Can you start by telling us about yourself and your role within the agency?
Hey, I’m Will and I’ve been a web analyst at Code since December 2020. I sit across multiple product teams as and when required as I support various clients such as Hillarys, Peninsula and Bluestone Wales. My role is quite varied but everything I work on is related to measurement and web (and app) analytics.
Can you tell us a bit about your background, and what attracted you to Code?
I actually did a Masters in Chemical Engineering when I was at university, and whilst my degree isn’t directly related to what I do on a day-to-day basis, I always knew I loved working with data and identifying trends.
In my first job after graduation, I used data to formulate production schedules for the company I worked for. I was then fortunate enough to join a graduate scheme in analytics where I picked up knowledge in tools such as Google Analytics, SQL/ BigQuery, Google Tag Manager, and Power BI, which is where my interest in web analytics initially developed.
What attracted me to Code was their Make Change Friday time, where we have Friday afternoons dedicated to personal development. In 2021, I spent this time learning how to code in a language called R and I also enrolled in an online CXL course in web analytics, which was paid for by Code using my annual training budget.
Now we’re all working flexibly, could you describe a typical day either in the office or from home?
My days at work generally start with a couple of stand-ups. Stand-ups generally last no more than 15 minutes and provide an opportunity for team members to update the rest of the team on where they are up to with work. It also allows for blockers to be identified and acted upon to ensure work continuously flows through. As I work with many product teams, I try and attend as many as I can, just so I am aware of the progress on each project.
As cliched as it sounds, no two days are the same for me! There are some days when I have no meetings and can get my head down into some detailed work, such as scoping tracking requirements or producing an interactive report or dashboard. There are other days when I am in meetings to discuss how we should be measuring the success of what we are building. Most of the time, I am conducting analysis or implementing web analytics tracking. I usually collaborate with designers, developers and delivery managers which is what makes my role so interesting!
What have you recently been working on?
Late last year, we helped Hillarys migrate over to the new Google Analytics offering, GA4. Hillarys were the first client of ours to complete a full migration, and as GA4 was completely new at the time, it was a steep learning curve for all of us.
Google has also recently announced they are sunsetting the current version of Google Analytics in July 2023 which means our decision to proactively migrate Hillarys to GA4 has proven beneficial. It means that Hillarys won’t lose web analytics data and means they will have at least one year’s worth of data in GA4 by the time the current version of Google Analytics gets sunsetted.
Is there any work you are particularly proud of?
I’m particularly proud of the work we did for the Abel and Cole app. This was the first time where measurement and analytics were considered throughout the whole build process, rather than it being an afterthought.
What this meant was that we were able to analyse the impact of the app from the very start, without having to retrofit tracking after the app was launched.
This new way of working proved to be a success, and many of the product teams are now working in this way.
Do you have a favourite part of your job?
Yes – the fact that data and measurement are at the heart of every product we build for our clients. We use this data to measure the impact and value we deliver for our clients, and we can also use it to continuously iterate our products and websites to deliver first-class customer experiences.
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Looking for a new opportunity with a company that values personal development and growth?
We’ve got open roles across analytics, performance, research and engineering – take a look here.
Want to learn more about the fundamentals of product measurement and optimisation? Watch our introduction workshop below:
