Building Goals for the Future

You may see “Building Goals for the Future” and think “Future!? I’m barely keeping up with this now.” That may be true, but technology changes so fast these days, and people with it, that ignoring what the metrics tell you about how people will discover, engage with your brand, or use your product in the future is something you do at great risk.

Already since beginning the book, there has been a significant change in Google Analytics that required an update on several chapters for you:

Facebook went public.

A site that started in 2008 called Pinterest that allows people to band together based on interest started a meteoric rise to the top.

Google+ got integrated with search.

Studies show that kids who make only $15,000 per year prioritize buying a smartphone to have access to their apps and data.

And that is just the tip of the iceberg from one short four-month period of time!

The interesting thing is that metrics can indicate that these changes are coming long before they become a reality. It’s all about learning to read the data. Think of it in relation to the stock market — the data fire hose coming from Twitter’s millions of users has been determined, after much study, to predict the stock market. That’s a pretty heady thought about a service where people chatter on about everything from their lunch to the latest political coup in 140 characters or less.

If you can predict things like stocks from innocuous interactions between relative strangers online, what else can data do to help you see into the future? Does a person’s mouse movements and eye tracking tell you her gender, age, and psychological makeup? Yes, it does. Does game theory have a growing place in business? Yes, it does. Does an increasing number of the population access the web via a phone or tablet? Yes, they do. These things and more are either here now, or coming soon, and you can track all of it, use it to make ongoing goals, track those goals, and predict what’s next for your brand.