Author
Lin Zhou
Product Experience Specialist
Author · 19 articles · 15 glossary terms
Writes about product experience, practical workflows, and growth, turning complex processes into clear steps for everyday decisions.
Articles by Lin Zhou
19 articles
Analytics · Nov 6, 2026 · 6 min read
User behavior tracking: what to track, methods and privacy
What user behavior tracking is, which behaviors to track, six tracking methods compared, how to set it up with privacy in mind, and a setup-flow example.
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Analytics · Nov 5, 2026 · 5 min read
Data maturity model: five stages, a self-assessment and what to fix first
A data maturity model shows how organizations progress from ad hoc spreadsheets to data embedded in decisions. Five stages, six dimensions to score, a worked self-assessment where tools outran governance, and the questions to ask.
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Analytics · Nov 5, 2026 · 5 min read
Data strategy: components, a worked example and a one-page plan
A data strategy links business goals to how data is collected, governed and used. Offense vs defense, the seven components, a worked example scoring six use cases into a 90-day plan, five steps to write one and the mistakes that stall it.
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Analytics · Nov 5, 2026 · 6 min read
Single source of truth for analytics: definitions, owners and reconciliation
A single source of truth means one agreed value and definition for each important metric. Source vs version of truth, why numbers disagree, a worked example reconciling four October revenue figures, and the steps to make it stick.
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Analytics · Nov 5, 2026 · 7 min read
Scatter plots: how to read them, make them and avoid false conclusions
A scatter plot shows how two numeric variables move together. How to read direction, form, strength, outliers and clusters, with a page-speed vs conversion example where one outlier flips the conclusion.
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Analytics · Nov 4, 2026 · 4 min read
Data Cleaning Techniques for Analytics Data, With a Worked Example
Data cleaning removes or fixes the records that make reports wrong: duplicates, bots, test and internal traffic, inconsistent labels, wrong time zones and outliers. Eight techniques for web and product data, and a worked cleanup of a month of orders.
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Analytics · Nov 4, 2026 · 4 min read
Dual Axis Charts: When They Mislead and What to Use Instead
A dual-axis chart puts two measures with different units on one chart, each with its own y-axis. The axis ranges are arbitrary, so the chart can show crossings and correlations that mean nothing. When it is acceptable, and four clearer alternatives with the same data.
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Analytics · Nov 4, 2026 · 4 min read
How to Analyze Data: 6 Steps and a Worked Example
A practical six-step way to analyze data: start from a question, pick the metric, check the data, break the change down, test the explanation and act. With a worked example of a 220 sign-up drop traced to one channel.
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Analytics · Nov 4, 2026 · 4 min read
KPI Dashboard: How to Design One People Actually Use
A KPI dashboard shows a handful of key numbers, each with a target and a status, so anyone can see in a minute what is on track. Eight design rules, a sample company dashboard, and how to build one in six steps.
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Analytics · Nov 4, 2026 · 4 min read
Data Storytelling: A Five-Part Structure, With a Before and After
Data storytelling turns an analysis into a decision someone can act on. A five-part structure for reports and presentations, the same analysis told badly and well, chart-choice rules and how to keep the story honest.
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Analytics · Nov 4, 2026 · 4 min read
Data Democratization: Give Everyone Data Without Losing Trust
Data democratization means anyone who needs data can get it and read it the same way. What it is, five practical steps from shared definitions to read-only links, a sample role setup, and the risks to manage.
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Analytics · Nov 4, 2026 · 5 min read
The 4 Types of Data Analytics, Followed Through One Real Question
Descriptive analytics says what happened, diagnostic why, predictive what will happen, and prescriptive what to do. One store’s revenue drop followed through all four, with the method and data each step needs.
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Analytics · Nov 4, 2026 · 6 min read
How to Reduce Bounce Rate: Find the Pages That Matter, Then Fix the Cause
Reducing bounce rate starts with knowing what your tool counts as a bounce and which pages lose the most visitors. How to rank landing pages, diagnose the cause by source and device, and apply the fix that matches it.
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Analytics · Nov 3, 2026 · 5 min read
Form Analytics: Measure Where Forms Lose People, Without Recording What They Type
Form analytics shows how many people see a form, start it, submit it and get through. The metrics for each step, how to track starts and validation errors without capturing field values, and what to fix first.
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Analytics · Nov 3, 2026 · 5 min read
Web Analytics Best Practices: 12 Habits That Keep Data Trustworthy
Twelve web analytics best practices in four groups, plan, collect, read and act, each with a quick way to check you are following it. The habits that keep numbers trustworthy and make sure someone actually uses them.
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Analytics · Nov 3, 2026 · 6 min read
Web Analytics Audit: A Checklist in Seven Areas
A web analytics audit in seven areas: coverage, sessions and identity, events, sources, filters and bots, privacy, and reconciliation with your backend. A concrete check for each, how to run it, and how to keep it healthy afterwards.
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Analytics · Nov 3, 2026 · 6 min read
Average Session Duration: How It's Calculated and Why the Mean Misleads
Average session duration is the last event minus the first, averaged over sessions. Why one-page sessions often count as zero, how a few long sessions inflate the mean, and how to read it as a distribution instead.
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Analytics · Nov 3, 2026 · 8 min read
Analytics Dashboard: What to Put on It, by Role (Template)
An analytics dashboard should answer one person's recurring question on one screen. Layouts by role, a weekly website template, six build steps and the mistakes that make dashboards lie.
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Growth & Marketing · Apr 16, 2026 · 8 min read
AARRR metrics: what to measure at each stage, and which stage to fix first
AARRR metrics for every stage with formulas, a worked example in people, examples for SaaS, stores and content sites, and how to pick the one stage worth fixing first.
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Glossary terms by Lin Zhou
15 glossary terms
Glossary
Anomaly detection
Anomaly detection is the process of finding observations, such as a day of traffic or a single transaction, that differ so much from the expected pattern that they are unlikely to be normal variation and are worth investigating.
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Glossary
Custom dimensions: what they are, scopes and how to design them
A custom dimension is a user-defined attribute, such as plan tier, author or product category, attached to analytics data at event, session, user, account or item scope so reports can be grouped and filtered by it.
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Glossary
Data preparation
Data preparation is the process of collecting, cleaning, transforming and validating raw data so it is accurate, consistent and structured for analysis, reporting or machine learning.
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Glossary
Data visualization
Data visualization is the graphical representation of data, such as charts, graphs, maps and dashboards, designed so people can see patterns, trends, comparisons and outliers faster and more accurately than in a table of numbers.
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Glossary
Descriptive statistics: types, examples and how to choose them
Descriptive statistics summarize a data set as it is: counts and frequencies, center (mean, median, mode), spread (range, standard deviation, interquartile range) and shape (skewness, percentiles), without generalizing beyond the data.
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Glossary
Drop-off rate
Drop-off rate is the percentage of users who leave a process at a given step instead of continuing to the next, calculated as (users at the step − users at the next step) ÷ users at the step × 100.
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Glossary
Engaged session
An engaged session is a session that lasted at least 10 seconds, included at least two pageviews, or completed a key event.
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Glossary
Industry template
A pre-built set of metrics, dashboards, funnels and event names for one sector — e-commerce, SaaS, education and seven more.
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Glossary
Moving average
A moving average (rolling average) is a series of averages, each taken over a fixed number of the most recent values, used to smooth short-term noise and show the underlying trend in time-series data.
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Glossary
Raw data: what it is, raw vs processed data, and when you need it
Raw data is data in the form it was originally collected, before cleaning, aggregation or transformation.
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Glossary
Realtime
Who is on the site right now, which pages they are on and where they came from, updated every few seconds.
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Glossary
Sequential testing
Sequential testing is a way of analysing an experiment repeatedly as data arrives, with stopping rules designed so that the overall false positive rate stays at the chosen level (for example 5%), allowing a test to stop early when the evidence is strong.
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Glossary
Stratified sampling
Stratified sampling is a sampling method that divides a population into non-overlapping groups (strata) based on a shared trait, then draws a random sample from each group, so every group is represented in the sample.
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Glossary
Time on page / dwell time
How long a visitor stayed on a page before moving on.
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Glossary
Winsorization
Winsorization is a way of limiting the influence of outliers by replacing values beyond a chosen percentile (for example above the 99th) with the value at that percentile, so every data point is kept but extreme values no longer dominate averages.
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