About Jodi McDermott
Jodi has been working in web analytics since 2002 and joined Clearspring in September 2007 as the Director of Product Management for Analytics. Clearspring is the leading provider of cross-platform widget services. They enable digital content and service providers to easily package, distribute and analyze the performance of widgets via a single platform. Jodi’s role is to shape and develop Clearspring’s analytics offerings. Prior to joining Clearspring, Jodi oversaw the web analytics team of InPhonic and also worked in the Consulting Services group of Visual Sciences. For five years prior to that, Jodi managed the Business Solutions team and oversaw the implementation of the first off-the-shelf web analytics package at USATODAY.com. She is an active member of the Web Analytics Association and a member of their Standards and Social Media committees and is a frequent speaker at the E-Metrics Summit. Jodi graduated from Pepperdine University with a B.S. in Business Administration and holds an MBA from American University with an emphasis in Finance and Management of Global Information Technology.
In her spare time, Jodi enjoys spending time with family and friends, running, reading and can sometimes by seen in front of a crowd carrying a tune.
You can reach Jodi via her personal email at: jodi.mcdermott@gmail.com.
November 17, 2007 at 12:07 pm
[...] I saw an interesting primer on metrics for widgets by Jodi McDermott, who leads analytics at Clearspring (a cross-platform widget tools company). Here’s the [...]
January 24, 2008 at 9:26 pm
I just listened to your podcast from Nov. Great stuff. I’ll subscribe to your blog.
January 24, 2008 at 9:53 pm
Thanks John - appreciate the comment. Please write again if you have questions in this area as it helps guide my blogging efforts.
Cheers! Jodi
May 21, 2008 at 10:38 am
[...] is a fitting context. to set the mood. what i want to point out to is on a Blog post from Jodi McDermott who is kindly under the moniker of “WidgetGirl”. Jodi is pretty much a Widget [...]
May 29, 2008 at 10:26 pm
hi Jodi,
Do you see Widgets used for the Enterprise Data/ERP etc as well or more on the consumer domain?
Best
Kiran
May 30, 2008 at 1:37 pm
Hi Kiran,
Yes, I have heard about widgets being used for Enterprise Data/ERP - I am assuming you mean having some sort of desktop widget to pump enterprise KPIs into? I can tell you that we have widgets that we use here at Clearspring for data purposes. They only work when inside of our network. Privacy of ERP data is of course a concern for any company. While widgets can easily be made to manage ERP data, the distribution points are then limited due to not being able to share to any networks, blogs, etc.
So to answer your question - we see them used much more heavily on the consumer domain.
Hope this answers your question.
Jodi
June 4, 2008 at 7:05 pm
Hi Jodi,
Wow! Great information here. I came across your page on the Sports Marketing Summit site - hoping you will be attending the Chicago Summit next week?
I am curious how would you advise someone who believes they have the creative/content basis for a very effective and viral widget/series of widgets but not the in-house capability to bring it about?
Also, as a promotional tool, which metrics would you pay most attention to in evaluating investment in widgets vs. some other methods of online promotion?
Thanks again for all the info on your site!
June 5, 2008 at 2:15 pm
Hi Tom,
I won’t be in Chicago unfortunately, but my colleague Steve Harris will be.
As for your question on building a widget, Clearspring has a studio and a network of studios that you can work with to outsource the development of a widget. If you are interested, send me an email and I’ll have someone send you some contacts.
Measuring the investment in widgets is really like any other online content or campaign. You need to define the business goals and the success metrics. If your goal is to drive traffic back to your web site, then the success metric is probably clickthroughs on the widget and then some other metric on your web site based on the behavior you are trying to drive.
Enjoy Chicago!
Jodi