"Experience: that most brutal of teachers.
But you learn, my God do you learn"

As C.S. Lewis wrote above, experience is a phenomenal teacher, it gives us the tools to learn and adapt to new and challenging situations. Here's an overview of my working experience and the work I've done for my previous employers, starting from the end.

Advocate @ Google

I'm currently a Search Advocate, focusing on Google Search Console. My job is divided between educating / inspiring the SEO community and working with the product's engineering team to develop new capabilities. Take a look at my Youtube series to learn more about what I do :-)

Before joining the Search team in 2019, I worked as an Analytics Advocate since 2013. My mission was to find the right data for the right purpose with the right design - I helped Google leadership & users to make better decisions by giving them useful data & insights. I managed two internal data platforms that made data available across Google, and I also analyzed & visualized internal and public available data to create actionable stories. Some highlights:

Thought Leadership: published the book Google Analytics Integrations (Wiley, 2015), over a hundred articles in major publications around the web, and 11 official Google case studies. I presented at over 80 events in 20 cities, including audiences of over a thousand people.
Data Platforms: came up with the idea and led the development of an internal large scale data platform. The project involved multiple teams, especially engineering, legal and product. The main objectives were to make internal data more accessible, secure and impactful. Following the success of the project, I "inherited" another large scale platform built by our engineers, which I managed and developed.
Product Excellence: worked with product & engineering teams to help shape our product vision - I also served as a bridge between our product teams and our users, bringing feedback and ideas on how to develop new capabilities.

Consultant & Thought Leader @ Online Behavior

Following an old dream and my interest in writing and editing other people’s writings, I decided to found my own business. I created a website called Online Behavior (now no more), which focused on marketing measurement and optimization. The website became a well-known Marketing Measurement & Optimization portal with content from industry thought leaders. Successfully built a large audience (over 1 million users reached so far), created several partnerships with content providers, and edited hundreds of articles. The website is currently the demo site for the global Google Analytics sales team and a testing platform for engineers building the product.

In parallel, I provided consultancy in measuring and optimizing websites as a Google Analytics Certified Partner. Delivered multiple training programs, analytics account designs, and analytical insights to enterprises, including Google, 888 Holdings, and Playtika.

Head of Analytics & Optimization @ Seperia

Following my experience as a practitioner, I joined Seperia, leading the Analytics & Optimization services for the company, an International SEM firm. Some of the highlights of this position:

Hands-on practice using a broad mix of technologies in order to optimize websites of major internet players targeting over 50 countries and 35 languages
Formulating conversion optimization strategies and work plans for clients
Assisting presales in initial conversion marketing analysis of prospects’ websites
Supporting my company with its promotion as an insight-driven service provider in its marketplace
Professional certifications include Google Analytics Authorized Consultants (Aug-08) and Website Optimizer Authorized Consultants (Jul-09)

But more important than all the items above was to learn how to deliver professional services in a very high standard. And connecting to some of the most promising internet companies in Israel and in the world.

Chair of Marketing @ Web Analytics Association

As I got more interested in the field, I joined the Web Analytics Association, and after a few months I was promoted to Chair of Marketing. For over three years I worked with the most prominent figures in the field to foster the Analytics and spread the word about this fantastic "new" thing.

I organized events, worked with educational material, and tried to give life to cool ideas. I was responsible for managing the marketing volunteers and define the strategic and operational marketing activities for the association. Below are two of the most important projects I created and led:

Web Analytics Without Borders – Our mission was to help Save the Children develop a data-driven culture from scratch and enable positive and sustainable change in thousands of children lives.
Web Analytics Championship – A competition that created an opportunity where Web Analysts could interact and share their professional knowledge with their fellow analysts in the Web Analytics community

On 2010 I won the Web Analytics Association Presidential Award for the work I did for the association.

SEO, Online Competitive Analysis & Analytics

While finishing my M.Sc. research, I started working with Spiral Solutions, an eGaming solutions company, starting with Brand Management but quickly moving into analyzing competition and website results. My main task during my time there was to implement and turn Hitwise data into insight.

I still remember the first time I heard the expression Web Analytics. After I got involved with Hitwise I started asking questions to the IT manager (wrong place!) and discovered they had an unused software installed in the servers: Webtrends 6.1! After reading a dozen whitepapers and researching the subject, I got ownership over it.

Later on I moved to eSnips, a small startup focused on user generated content with a huge amount of data. The website had millions of visitors a months and produced very rich clickstream data. My position was to analyze this behavior and bring insights into the company and also to define the SEO strategy for the company – this proved to be a significant source of traffic since the website had millions of pages indexed by Google.

Leadership & Management

I was lucky enough to be very involved with a youth movement early in my life, Habonim Dror, where I was given a huge amount of responsibility and it turned out to be one of the most enriching experiences in my career. I was responsible for the educational and administrative aspects of dozens (sometimes hundreds) of teenagers and had the chance to organize events and summer camps in a large scale. At the age of 21 I had already organized events for over 200 people and had represented Brazil in Russia, USA and Argentina. As Emily Dickinson so skillfully described:

We play at Paste
Till qualified, for Pearl
Then, drop the Paste
And deem ourself a fool

The Shapes – though – were similar
And our new Hands
Learned Gem-Tactics
Practicing Sands

"Experience: that most brutal of teachers. But you learn, my God do you learn"