What’s the “Scoop”? Building an editorial analytics dashboard with purpose 

Introductions Mike Petroff @mikepetroff Senior Product Manager Harvard Business Publishing Aaron Baker @helveticaman Associate Director of Content Strategy Harvard University 

Creating and distributing content Harvard Public Affairs & Communications 1 

Our mission Communicate and amplify Harvard’s mission of excellence in teaching, learning, and research while making the University and its contributions relatable and relevant in an always-on world. 

Harvard’s Content Platforms Place your screenshot here 

Idea Website Social Media Editorial Measurement 

How did it do? 

Compared to what? 

Against which KPIs? 

What was your expectation? 

*Awkward silence* 

How can I keep up with all these requests for data? How did it do? Which stories should I share with alumni? Is this a good email open rate? Can you pull the numbers? How many readers do we have? 

Our reports focused on the website, not the content. 

Our (ideal) process 1. Create content that aligns to business goals 2. Distribute on platforms: web, social, email 3. Measure performance against a baseline of average performance by content type 4. Analyze and share your insights with the team and empower them with information 

We identified gaps in our analytics measurement and reporting capabilities. ➔ Benchmarking ➔ On-demand access ➔ Scaled reporting ➔ Shared vocabulary ? 

We looked for solutions. 

First, create a measurement plan Identifying and capturing the right data 2 

Measurement plan goals ◉ Translate institutional goals to measurable user action ◉ Ensure quality data capturing ◉ Establish baseline KPIs ◉ Speculate action plan based on results 

Turning goals into metrics Goals ❏ Visual storytelling ❏ Reader engagement ❏ Cross-platform content promotion Wishlist ➢ Element visibility ➢ Scroll depth ➢ Outbound link tracking 

Building Scoop The editorial analytics dashboard 3 

Like all great projects, it started with a whiteboard. 

“ For something to be considered innovation, it needs to be new, valuable, implemented, and adopted. 22 Sari Harrison Ideas are Easy, Sorting them is Hard 

Creating the roadmap for Scoop Value? > Measurement plan > Build prototype > User interviews > Collect feedback Implementation? > Gather resources > Build “MVP” > Collect feedback > Iterative improvement Adoption? > User onboarding > Increase awareness > Build reports > Measure usage 

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Scoop tour Dashboard and visualizations 4 

Roll-up view on homepage 

Harvard Gazette news story 

Rolling benchmarks 

Rolling benchmarks 

Scroll depth 

Cross-platform content promotion 

Daily Gazette email 

Interactive data using Highcharts 

Facebook post 

How it works What’s under the hood? 5 

How it works ◉ Server requests data via platform APIs ◉ Data is stored in a database ◉ Averages are calculated ◉ Results are published 

7am request email stats every 15 minutes 1am request Facebook post data update benchmarks Data timeline 2am request web analytics data update benchmarks 9am push Slack signals every 3 hours 6pm rush hour ends midnight request final email data process audience cohorts Server data requests and processing schedule RUSH HOUR 

Bringing Scoop analytics to users Making the dashboard more visible 6 

Credit: smithhousedesign.com The Chasm 

Democratizing data “The goal is to have anybody use data at any time to make decisions with no barriers to access or understanding.” -Bernard Marr Source: What Is Data Democratization?, Forbes 

Email reports from Scoop ◉ Daily Gazette email performance ◉ Introduced and reinforced benchmark visuals and shared vocabulary 

Email reports from Scoop ◉ Weekly content performance ◉ Narrative explanations and insights ◉ Provided links to Scoop dashboard for more analysis 

“ “Hey Aaron, what’s the Scoop login again? I forgot my password.” 

SSO implementation 

Signals and Scoop Slackbot “I just want Scoop to tell me what’s important and when I should pay attention.” 

Bookmarklets “Can I just jump to a Scoop dashboard right from a Gazette article? 

In-person distribution methods. 

Scoop helps to create a more data-informed culture. 

The future of Scoop Roadmap, challenges, opportunities 7 

Roadmap and Challenges ◉ More platforms ◉ Changing APIs ◉ Data model 

Using Google Data Studio and other tools to iterate quickly and measure value. 

Credit: Graziella Jackson, Echo&Co Based on an assumed 1,782 working hours in a year (2,080 minus federal holidays, vacation, sick time, etc.) Type of idea % of your budget % of your time “Bread and butter” (low risk, low scope daily efforts) 70% 50% (891 hours per year, 20 hours per week f/t) “Build and boost” (replicating ideas that have proven their results; often reach and conversion drives with a clear beginning, middle, end) 20% 25% (445.5 hours per year, 10 hours per week f/t) “Breakthroughs” (high risk, high scope, high value new ideas, taken from pilot to replication) 10% 25% (445.5 hours per year, 10 hours per week f/t) 

What we’ve learned. 

Any questions? Let’s keep in touch. ◉ @mikepetroff ◉ @helveticaman Thanks!