Ciceron Blog Archives

All Flabby and Full of S.A.G.

I could simply accept The Pant's cruel condemnation and go on. Or I could understand and know the underlying problem and deal with it. Like the time I had lunch with the owner of the Hilton Head Institute (a client) who, after I had mentioned that I had gained ten pounds after each of my children was born, said, "You gained ten pounds not because your wife had kids, rather you ate too much."

Your web site is no different. If you can't figure out why your site isn't working, it's probably not because it "looks crappy." No, it's because your strategy and customer expectations are misaligned.

Most site redesigns are build upon a concept we at Ciceron call S.A.G. - Speculation, Anecdotes and Guesswork. Every decision you make about the next direction of your web strategy will be based upon one of two factors: that which you know empirically to be true, and that which you think might be true -- or S.A.G.. I assure you that if you're strategy has a high degree of S.A.G., you will encounter a much higher degree of risk that your business expectations and customer behaviors will be misaligned.

On the other hand, if you and members of your web team base your decisions on actual data you will minimize risk in your decision-making processes and launch a web strategy more likely to succeed in delivering value to your visitors and your bottom line.

Calculating Your S.A.G. Index
We apply a rather non-scientific and somewhat subjective methodology to assessing the S.A.G. in a web strategy. Those decisions which we can prove to be true as indicated by real data (e.g. our conversion rates, successful keywords, campaign metrics, site traffic statistics), we give a low S.A.G. "Index". Say, somewhere between 1 and 3.

Those decisions for which we have no data to support -- we're speculating, have heard anecdotal information about, or we're just plain guessing -- we give a high S.A.G. Index. Somewhere between 7 and 10. Clearly, we need to conduct some quantitative research to provide us additional comfort in making decisions in these areas.

In the middle (4-6) are squishy decisions for which we may have some data, but we're not sure of its reliability. In those areas we need to make a decision: either we decide that we need additional data to substantiate our S.A.G. or we take a leadership position and trust our instincts and industry knowledge.

In the end, you have an average across all decisions or your S.A.G. Index. A project that enters production with a low S.A.G. Index can take on greater challenges, integrate more marketing and technology functions, and be utilized throughout your organization. A project that enters production with a high S.A.G. Index should probably take on less risk in terms of expensive technology implementations (content management solutions, ecommerce applications, financial integration, etc.) and customer exposure. You'd hate to introduce a highly scaled product to the marketplace that has a high risk of missing its mark and, in the worst case, really upsetting your customer base.

Ideally, you'd have loads of important information to base your decisions upon. Armed with that information, you can confidently launch web strategies that hit the mark, making your visitors ecstatic with your site's ability to service them, and your business rejuvenate with thoroughly modern business techniques.

Planning for 2005 budgets is beginning now. Do yourself a favor and properly budget for conducting what research you need to make good decisions. Calculate your S.A.G. Index and then look in the eyes of each any every one of your team members and say, "Well? Are we confident or are we speculating?" Be honest with yourselves. If you have uncertainty, do whatever you can to seek out data. You do have the data, by the way. It's sitting with your management team, your sales force, your customer service representatives, and your customers. Ask them all. When you've finished that, put your current web servers through a web metrics and analytics tool. They're readily available. And, of course, if you want the process managed or moderated, call people like us. We can probably help you get there faster.

Or you can buy your web site a pair of elastic pants and go on with your denial like someone I know who will go unnamed.

Services Mentioned:
Strategy Development