Here at E-Nor, we pride ourselves on being a global leader in web and mobile analytics and digital marketing optimization. When we have the chance to grow our team to make the company stronger, we jump at the opportunity. So when well-seasoned analytics industry veteran, John Henson came into the picture, it made perfect sense for E-Nor to welcome him with open arms.
John has a very strong background in all things analytics, from strategy to implementation to analysis and consulting, across enterprise digital analytics platforms including Google Analytics, Adobe Analytics (SiteCatalyst), CoreMeterics, customer experience tools such as ClickTale, qualitative/voice of customer tools, as well as data visualization and analysis tools including Tableau. He has worked with a variety of industries including business-to-business, e-commerce, media, education and governmental agencies. Early in his career, John held a consultancy position with our friends and very smart folks at LunaMetrics in Pittsburgh. He was heavily involved in Google Analytics before moving to San Francisco where he took an in-house position in the online education space with Apollo Group. Here, John leveraged his mastery of Google Analytics and SiteCatalyst to support the advanced analytics needs of the Apollo Group. According to John, experiencing the practitioner side after a consultancy position gave him a lot of enlightenment about how consultants can be more effective in empowering large organizations with data and insights.
“It’s a level of understanding that I’m not sure how to put down in writing. You get to see the day-to-day operations of the organization and you start to understand some of the behavior that baffled you as a consultant. And then you work with consultants, and are baffled by some of the behavior that used to make perfect sense,” states John. He shares with us that one of the challenges with being on the practitioner side is that you become focused on just the tools you use at one organization, solving for one set of problems. The work and experience feels deeper than on the consultancy side, but more narrow and focused. John is hoping to regain a broader expertise again by coming back to the consultant side of things.
John has spent numerous years within our industry, but he didn’t start off that way. He is originally from Ohio, where he attended the University of Dayton, earning a bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering. It wasn’t until a few years after college that John discovered his interest in measurement and optimization. And even though (as it may seem to most) that there’s a huge difference between chemical engineering and analytics, he has seen the connection between the two. According to John, chemical engineering is very much about problem solving, which is a great for working in analytics.
“(Start) with a set of information that often seems to fall short of having enough pieces to solve a problem, and figuring out how to solve it anyway. These are the types of skills that make engineering a great foundation for almost any endeavor, including analytics. Although there isn’t a lot of coursework in the program around statistics specifically, there is a strong grounding in calculus, differential equations, numerical methods, etc. that one can at least be comfortable hanging out with the real mathies. And sometimes even get some of their jokes,” says John. “I really like solving problems and figuring things out. I like the satisfaction from helping other people find and accomplish their goals. I like making decisions based on logic, and data, and facts and using those things to find the right answer to a question. Digital analytics brings those and other things all together nicely in one place, so it is a really good fit.”
John joins E-Nor as a Solutions Architect, assisting global brands solve very complex digital measurement challenges. He will also support E-Nor’s clients in analytics tool evaluation, advanced implementations and deliver maximum value from Google Analytics Premium. It is John’s goal to move back to Ohio soon to spend more time with family and friends, as well as enjoy various outdoor activities in his home state. This move allows for enhanced support of E-Nor’s clients in the Eastern Time Zone, and will provide additional assistance to our New York and Tampa Bay area offices.
In addition to his analytics expertise, John is also an experienced blogger within the digital analytics industry. While if you asked him, John would be modest about his contributions to the industry as a whole, he’s written several blog posts that hit on foundational elements within the digital community, bringing focus to key points in which people were struggling with.
We are excited about the opportunity to bring John on board, and who knows, with his expert blog writing experience in the past, we may be able to get him to share some of his knowledge and stories here with you!
