[How To] Setup Cohort Analysis in 30 minutes using Google Analytics

[Alert: this article might be Startups-oriented and presume readers to have basic understanding on related areas. Still, no worry, it's totally okay if you're not one, simply skip directly to the "Solution" section and grab the insight as quick takeaway. Then just leave the rest as bed-time story later. ;) ]

Cohort analysis has been a very hot topics in Analytics & Startup era, especial after Eric Ries published his startup bible: Lean Startup. Need not to say, it's a powerful tool (otherwise why a hot topic?). For those who don't know anything about such methodology, originated from Medical field, a cohort means grouping certain subjects (usually people), based on certain common characteristics (says, user experience that we've delivered) within a defined period (ref: Cohort Study - Wikipedia: http://bit.ly/XZn5Fb); and a cohort analysis will be analysis performed across different cohorts. While it might be somehow confusing, simply speaking, cohort analysis allows us to understand behavior of groups of subjects, specified by time, over time.

Got it? No? Don't worry, since we've plenty of articles out there which talks about this topic (see the end of article), i might cover this area more later but not today. Today, we focus mainly on how to prepare proper installation for Cohort Analysis, using Google Analytics & client-side javascripts, in a quick and dirty way.

An Exciting Month Passed, yet Another is Coming...

Have gone through an exhausting yet exciting month....... and glad that i've survived. Orz

Long story short, i have attended two consecutive events as one of the public speakers, tested a few marketing concepts, played around with Twitter Bootstrap framework for my personal page, and preparing for the upcoming 2nd Startup Weekend in Hong Kong (and not to mention the on-going intensive studying for Omniture stuff.). Would love to share with you guys every single detail of each story, just so little time because of increasing responsibility in my analytic team (a good sign though!). Anyway, here's the list of the highlights of those stuff, do feel free to drop me a comment if anything within interests (or confuse) you, i could discuss more afterwards. :)

Here's today's menu:

[Public Speech] Effective Content Management Strategy

[Public Speech] Trends in Startup Analytics  

[Test] Play with Adwords for SEO 

[Toy] Have Fun with Twitter Bootstrap

..... and, let's get started. :)

16 Pinterest-Clones in China (and More's Coming) !!

16 PInterest-Clones in China (and More's Coming) !!

Everyone knows the legend that Pinterest has made in the last year, and the fire has begun in the China as well - clones are rising up !! So how "heat" is Pinterest in China? Try some casual search on Baidu brings us 17 clones (+1 for Tesent dutu.com!!), including two from IT giants: vancl and taobao!!

(Hey, I have prepared you some "bonus" at the end too !!! XD)

• 凡客達人 (Name Translation: "Masters of Vancl", sub-domain of vancl.com)

....

4 Things Startups Should Learn from Moneyball

4-things-startups-learn-from-moneyball

Finally have some free time to go through this masterpiece. Just as the poster on the right said: "It's more than a movie...". Despite it talked mainly about how GM Billy fight the long way for his belief in statistical analysis for baseball, indeed, we have so much to learn from this old story in 2002.... particularly, startups.

[ kindly warning: spoilers alert. If you haven't watched this movie yet, skip to the end, quickly! :) ]


1. It's All about Talents

At the beginning of the movie, Billy quickly recognized Peter Brand, a fictional character based on Paul DePodesta, as Peter has been influencing the GM of Cleverland Indians in making decision even though Peter is just a graduate. Billy then talked with this young boy regarding his enlightening insights in analytical approach in baseball: "Buy wins, buy runs, but not players". While by that time Billy was planned to trade players with Cleverland Indians, but he turned out bought Peter, a player analyst instead. Throughout the rest of the movie, Peter proves his valuable supports to Billy and brings Oakland to the winning roads. All these won't happen if Billy haven't treasured Peter's ideas, and most importantly, treasured Peter himself as a special talent.