Adobe Analytics: Simple hacks for greater efficiency and self-service
Part 2: In-tool strategies
This article describes the key challenges that analytics teams face today, and our recommendations to overcome them using in-tool strategies. Go here for part one.
Keys to efficiency: In-tool strategies
Effective self-service is often an exercise in removing perceived barriers and boosting confidence. Here are some recommendations:
Take advantage of all features
-
Standard templates:
- They are out-of-the-box and cover common use cases, making it a timesaver if the user is looking for quick access to common KPIs.
- They are grouped by the vertical they belong to and are populated with different dimensions, segments, metrics, and visualizations.
-
Custom templates:
- Any project can be saved as a custom template (must be an admin or have proper use permissions).
- This is a great option if you find yourself building the same type of report repeatedly with minor changes.
-
Master the right-click.
- Several right-click options exist in Workspace to save you time.
-
Drop-down filters.
-
Hotkeys.
Optimize Workspace performance
The Analysis Workspace performance help page shows the network, browser and project factors that impact project performance. Drive adoption by creating faster dashboards. It also links to tips for optimization and can be accessed in the Workspace menu under Help > Performance.
Intra/inter Workspace panel linking
Use panel linking to improve Workspace performance. Use collapsed panels to break up large reports while not burdening users with having to understand and swap between multiple Workspace projects.
Create a knowledge repository
- Set everyone’s default Workspace to an evergreen library of self-enablement resources.
- Curate great links from Adobe Experience League.
- Share release videos from the Adobe Analytics YouTube channel.
- Share an office hours schedule.
- Link to information about Analytics release and bug fixes.
Training tutorial Workspace
The Analysis Workspace training tutorial walks users through common terminology and steps for building their first analysis project in Workspace. This template is available as a standard template in the New Project modal, and allows you to create your own tutorials, tailoring them to your organization’s unique use cases and data structure (eVars, custom events, etc.). This is a form of scalable, automated enablement.
Quick insights panel
Quick insights provides guidance for non-analysts and new users of Analysis Workspace to learn how to answer business questions quickly and easily. It is also a great tool for advanced users who want to answer a simple question quickly and easily without having to build a table themselves.
Leverage Descriptions on your variables
Use the Description field in variables to communicate with users and help them pull data as it was intended to be pulled. Context is available in Analysis Workspace without having to flip between docs or ping the core team for help.
Enhance templates with Annotations
Drive adoption of templates and improve self sufficiency with templates using Annotations. Foster usage of annotations to enhance the story telling aspect of sharing analysis.
Leverage curation
Curation lets you limit the components (dimensions, metrics, segments, date ranges) before sharing a project. When a recipient opens the project, they will see a limited set of components that you have curated for them. Curation is an optional but recommended step before sharing a project.
When curating Virtual Report Suites, you can create friendly dimension, metric, and segment labels. Create customized, easier-to-consume labels for subsets of users. Keep in mind, labels do not change the master record (name).
Create solution reference workspaces
Use annotations to create in-product solution documentation references. Having in-product workspaces in addition to templates can help centralize knowledge and provide invaluable context. Use inter/intra-workspace linking to create easy to scale, and easy to navigate resources.
The benefits of Adobe Analytics dashboards
Adobe 2.0 reporting API
Leverage the reporting API to move standard reports from Workspace to scheduled reports and dashboards. Additionally, take advantage of Analysis Workspace to build API requests.
Learn more about strategy and thought leadership at the Customer Success hub.