Stats are like a Good Friend « UseMyStats

Stats are like a really good friend. Really good friends are honest. They’ll tell you how it is or how it isn’t. They are the ones that will let you know that you’ve been walking around all afternoon with something in your teeth or that maybe those pants are the best choice. And on the flip side, they are the first in line to congratulate you on a job well done or point out something positive.

And while stats can’t give you a hug, they are a little bit passionless (being just numbers and all!), they are honest. They don’t try to impress you and you don’t have to impress them–though it is great when they are going up! They tell you when something is up or down. It’s pretty black and white (or in UseMyStats, black and red). The reasons why the stats go up and down aren’t necessarily that clear cut, but that the numbers went up or down is.

I was talking recently to someone and we were going over setting up a stat. They pointed out that the numbers could be evened out a little to make it look better. If they took a bit from the second month, the first month wouldn’t look so low.

I pointed out that that’s a slippery slope, and that the stat was just being honest. She thought that was a good saying: “the stats were just being honest.” The area being tracked had just started so the low first number was to be expected. And there was no need to impress anyone with the numbers. They didn’t need to fudge them to make them look better. They just needed the numbers so that they could tell what was working and what wasn’t.

With UseMyStats, we’re trying to make your relationship with stats as pleasant as possible so that they can be the best friends possible in helping you manage your business and/or life. We want it to be easy for you to talk with them (put in the values–or better yet, let the system get them for you) and for them to talk back (the graphs and other visuals).

And hopefully that relationship will be so smooth that you don’t have to try to impress each other and can just communicate back and forth to come up with the best plans of action to expand how you want!

And then the stats can be the first ones to congratulate you when you get it right!