How do I usually work with clients?

I like to work with clients on an ongoing basis.  That way clients get a little bit of help every month - enough to be useful, but not overwhelming.

How did this model evolve?

From trial and error.  I did a lot of 'one-off' analytics projects where I gave clients a whole lot of data, beautifully interpreted.  Made rooms full of people go "wow, that's so cool", generated lots of discussion on how to make changes.  And then watched in frustration as people picked one or two findings (out of forty), and did a great job changing those. 

I realized that the flow of information needs to match peoples' ability to do something with that information.  I also like sticking around as changes are made.

How is the working relationship structured?

With most clients, I set up a monthly or quarterly "bucket".  This is a bank of hours each month or quarter that are used to address your priority analytic needs.  This allows an enormous amount of flexibility in making sure the web analytics I do is meeting your most current needs for information. 

Often my first piece of work with a client is more defined than this - a more formal project with a statement of work. But once we have that first project or two done, the benefits of this more flexible structure are usually pretty compelling. However, not all corporate cultures (and contracts departments) like flexibility, so we can be as defined as you need.