Are Website Performance Metrics Still Relevant? 14
jackvalko asks: "Recently Keynote Systems began an upgrade of Transaction Perspective, one of their performance measuring products. The data collected is used by the Executive staff at the dotcom I work for as a means to evaluate our customer experience. Now that they are almost done, we've noticed a better than 40% reduction in response time of our site.
While I'm happy that our performance 'looks' good, this major change has given us pause to question the statistical relevance of the data that is being collected and the somewhat arbitrary nature of performance metrics collection in general. And, of course, how we message all of this to upper management.
So I put it to you, Slashdot! Do you find performance metrics relevant to your customer experience? How do you manage expectations and change to upper management? And, most importantly perhaps, are organizations that collect this data still relevant on The Internet as it exists today?"
Performance Metrics (Score:3, Insightful)
If it is you then: like all performance metrics, if the results are good then they matter - argue so. If the results are poor, then they are just statistics and you should point towards other, less numerical, measurements to justify your continued employment.
Of course, for these types of measurements to matter you have to be measuring the correct thing. If the website loads faster but the customer still can't find the needed information because the layout sucks, then clearly that is not a good measure of customer satisfaction. You have to correlate what you are measuring (website performance) with what you care about (customer satisfaction). Unless you can show how those are related then you are correct in your worry - the performance stats are useless.
Re:Performance Metrics (Score:4, Insightful)
For some markets, like online trading, etc, performance can mean something entirely different.
Absolute versus relative (Score:3, Insightful)
If your upper managers aren't complete idiots, that should be clear enough to them, but YMMV...
Re:Absolute versus relative (Score:2)
Of course, if they are complete idiots, then you can show them the new numbers and claim, "Look, buying this new metrics software improved our performance by 40%. I think I deserve a raise!"
It depends... (Score:2, Insightful)
When we collect performance metrics, we use that information to drive the next round of improvements. We look at bottlenecks, common areas of complaints, feature requests, load peaks, cache performance, etc etc with the goal of identifying the biggest bang for the buck.
Customer satisfaction is however an important aspect of your business model and knowing how
Re:It depends... (Score:2)
Two important points here - firstly, it's well-known that a large proportion of users are search-dominant [useit.com], or at least use a mixture of searching and links [uie.com][1].
Although the numbers differ (eg, between the two articles), both agree that up to 80% of users use either search primarily or search and navigation links when navigating a
Performance metrics relevant? (Score:1)
Art thou high, Romeo?
Website too slow? I leave. Website payment insecure? I leave. Website crapfloods me with cookies? I leave. Website menus unorganized? I leave. No content? I leave. Too many clicks to get what I want? I leave. These are my performance metrics.
Bye.
2.5 comments/hour?!? (Score:1, Offtopic)
Ask your customers! (Score:3, Interesting)
Depends on your audience (Score:2)
Outside that, as long as the reponse "feels" fast enough, and you're getting zero complaints, either it's good enough or no one's using it. Imposing artifical hard & fast numbers (like "no more than 5 second response time") leads to budget overruns and disappointment all around. The overall experience for the user is what's important. Your server logs will tell you if no one's using the app/site/system.
For exam
Performance != Customer Experience (Score:1)
Make the boss feel it (Score:2)
preferences (Score:1)
Oh I don't know... (Score:3, Interesting)
When you serve out a website that pushes in excess of 200,000,000 pageviews a day (yes I really do, dynamic even!) then you start to use a lot of metrics to try to gauge how your code changes and network changes affect things. There are lots of companies that specialize in this sort of thing. This runs from the application level all the way down to the network level, sometimes even the transport layer if you buy their marketing.
Certainly from the network (RouteScience, Internap, etc) to the application (Zend, Urchin, Webtrends) there are all kinds of companies willing to provide you metrics and solutions, usually at a high cost.
The trick is to build your own metrics and then find or build the products you need to solve your bottlenecks or improve your user experience.
Just some ideas, not sure if it is the answer you want.
OT: And since I refuse to post in the "how do I build a mail server for 1mm users" thread I'll just say it here. "What the fuck dude? First of all, 1mm users isn't all that large these days. SMTP and POP3 are no brainers. IMAP is a bit harder but not really. Check out perdition and maildir and qmail or postfix or even sendmail if you know it well. This shit has been done over and over and over again. There is nothing even remotely complex in providing mail stores for 1mm users. THERE ARE FUCKING HOW-TO's to do it even. Okay, </rant>"
And I'm out.
-david