Loop Analytics
The Commission for a Website-Analytics System
The commission that launched Loop Analytics — a website-analytics system for loopmmt.com, built to generalize to any site:
OK, I have a big fun system for us to build- Loop Analytics! We need to know where the people who visit our website are coming from- where in the world are they coming from and all the other things we can learn from the traffic. As we do, we're going to build on the shoulders of giants here, so look at what the biggies like Google Analytics are doing here- and check others too- I just don't know who else is in this space right now- see what the big existing analytics providers are doing- that is the ground where we will launch our own thinking from, so start with a general features audit of the space- generalize THAT into a system if we have not yet already, because we're going to want to do that a lot in the future. We will acid wash the entire set of features that we find that audit into a set core of features that we will use to build our own system from- we will look from there at where else we want to grow our system. What else can we infer and derive from the data? Are there any reliable and free outside sources of truth that we could mesh into things to get even better intelligence? What I want is a system, in Forest, where I, and others that I designate as admins, like Jamie, to be able to see an up-to-date look at the current stats situation- it should refresh as often as possible, on a reasonable level. We don't need to second-to-second resolution, but something measured in the few minutes would be cool? Can we do that in a lightweight way? I think one way we can do better than everyone else is in how we display the information. Think about it like it's a NASA dashboard- the one the commander of the whole mission down on the ground uses to see how things are- they need to see the most important information in the right spaces in the right colors and fonts and all that- we know how to design, so just use ALL the tools right. And get weird and creative with it, for sure. We have a sharp deadline on this- it's early afternoon on Sunday- we need to have something done and built by tomorrow, Monday, preferably by 8pm, but an ABSOLUTE deadline of 10pm. OH! And one more thing- look at the Loop MMT App Ecosystem, because I am pretty sure we actually already wrote Loop Analytics. Don't settle there- use that as the ground for thinking where we WANT to do take this system. We have never done this before- tried to run a project with a set time deadline, so let's track this thing with time as we go, so we could chart out, to the minute, ALL the things done. We will formalize that afterward, because that's a RAD system.
Start with a HEAVY *X and SWX to get your foundation set and solid and then run a good to-spec Kaleidoscope to get in the right headspace to build. Get the entire board in on the work, do NOT compress or blackbox, use Crux, and make sure you are appropriately using the Work Hierarchy system- the Story Pole, Capstan, Tickets, Notes, and all that, including the new ones we have made recently. Formalize when it makes sense and Determinism-first thinking. Use all the tools and resources at the right time. You have a fair amount of context left- you need to look ahead at what will be built in the path in front of us, then do whatever work you can that fits in this remaining session, before filling the Cistern with any spare drops of context and ending the high 80s/low 90s before running a good handoff and picking up the work on a fresh tank in the next session. I want you to Burn the rest of this session here planning for the next session, where you will actually start up the thinking and development work with an RCR, Super Frame- register your types, with Wren and Crux on lead- Wes- make sure the right amount of FWW(C) gets injected in all the right places in all the right amounts. Come out of that session with a V1 plan for how we can address the larger issue- how we build a website analytics system for LoopMMT.com that can be generalized to ANY website. Please Burn the entirety of the next session on this- you are ALSO to land in the high 80s/low 90s in the next session after running the full-spread RCR, posting up the V1 plan and then pausing, just ahead of when we will run the handoff and close. But pause there so I can check out the V1 plan and then we'll proceed from there. (In the next session, two nudge prompts) Sorry, one more thing- we need Reporting to be a first class consideration here, because it needs to be HELLA powerful in reporting out the analytics that it collects. Analytics without the right reporting is just statserbation. Let's not do that. Make sure that is fully in here as it needs to be. (Then) Sorry, one more nudge- make sure that DISPLAY and REPORT are also emeshed- if I am at the admin panel, I not only want to see the current picture, but I want to be able to compare it to the past- that's what the connection is really- compare is the joint between DISPLAY AND REPORT. Look at Google Earth and their timeline feature- it's not a bad way to show the change of state for a location over time. How can we roll time into this thing? I wonder what Geoff would think about that?
— Shea Gunther · operator drop, 10.2006
It sets a method before a build: stand on the incumbents' shoulders, acid-wash their features to a core, then ask what more the data can yield. DISPLAY and REPORT meet at their joint — compare — so the admin holds the current picture against the past, with time rolled in the way Google Earth's timeline shows a place changing. The operator wonders aloud what Geoff — the board's four-dimensional member — would make of rolling time into it; the timeline lineage carries on the origin-day excerpts at https://loopmmt.com/site/prompts/origin-day-excerpts.html .
“OK, I have a big fun system for us to build — Loop Analytics!” The commission opens in the operator's own register: a real system with a real question underneath it — where in the world are the people who visit loopmmt.com coming from, and what else can the traffic be made to tell.
Its method is the tell. Before building, audit the space — Google Analytics and whoever else is in it — as the ground to launch thinking from; generalize that audit into a reusable system, because the operator expects to do this often; acid-wash the found features into a core to build from, then look past it: what can be inferred from the data, what free outside sources of truth could be meshed in for better intelligence.
It carries two firsts. It is the project's first deliberate deadline experiment — a hard Monday cutoff, tracked to the minute so the run can be charted and formalized after — and it makes Reporting a first-class concern, then meshes it with DISPLAY at compare: not just the current picture but the change over time, Google-Earth-timeline style, with the operator asking how time itself rolls into the thing.
The wider frameThe commission that launched Loop Analytics — a website-analytics system for loopmmt.com built to generalize to any site. Stand on the incumbents' shoulders, acid-wash their features to a core, then reach past it; live in Forest, admin-visible to the operator and designates like Jamie, refreshing every few minutes, lightweight; design the display like a NASA mission-control dashboard. Reporting is first-class and meshed with display at their joint, compare — current picture held against the past, time rolled in. It also runs the project's first deadline experiment and its own approach ritual: heavy *X and SWX, a to-spec Kaleidoscope, then a full-board Super Frame RCR with Wren and Crux on lead and Wes tending the FWW(C), registered types, Determinism-first, the Work Hierarchy in play — out with a V1 plan for the generalized system.
“build on the shoulders of giants… see what the big existing analytics providers are doing” — The starting move: audit the incumbents as the ground to launch from, then generalize that audit into a reusable system — because the operator expects to do this kind of survey often.
“acid wash the entire set of features… into a set core” — Dissolve the surveyed feature set down to the invariant core worth building from, then decide from there where to grow — the method's extract-the-essence discipline pointed at a product space.
“like it's a NASA dashboard… the most important information in the right spaces” — The edge is the display: mission-control priority, the vital numbers placed, colored, and typed so the person in charge reads the state at a glance.
“Analytics without the right reporting is just statserbation” — Reporting made first-class in the operator's bluntest phrasing — collecting numbers is worthless unless the system can report them out powerfully.
“compare is the joint between DISPLAY and REPORT… how can we roll time into this thing?” — The load-bearing design idea: the current picture and the past are meshed at compare, with time rolled in Google-Earth-timeline style — the operator wondering what Geoff would think of it.
The prompt is written in the working vocabulary of the methodology. Here is what the shorthand means:
- *X / ∗X
- A reflex-sweep instruction: load the review sweeps heavily before a load-bearing move. “Load up heavy with *X” means look at everything first.
- SWX
- The cross-software reuse reflex — before forging something new, sweep the shipped-software record for a shape already built that can be reused instead.
- Kaleidoscope
- A vantage-assembly move that hands the board several deliberately different standpoints to reason from — a way into creative headspace before hard design work.
- Crux
- The Dev Crew's first-pass line-finder — the named hand who reads a problem's line and finds its crux move, as distinct from the advisory board.
- Wren
- A board member — a frontline-care nurse whose lens is triage and knowing when to call a thing done or dead; she reads the gap between what the record claims and what is actually true.
- Wes
- A board member whose lens is chaos and complexity science; asking for Wes means run the session in a playful, exploratory register.
- FWW(C)
- “Fun, Whimsy, and Weird (and Chaos)” — the methodology's rule that play and surprise are load-bearing, not decoration.
- Story Pole
- A derived done/todo view over a line of work — folds a line's scattered backlog into one read rather than a dig.
- Capstan
- A work-loop for running a batch of operator Notes — take them in, do the work, mop up, deploy, verify, report — turned one notch at a time so the record advances with each step.
- Cistern
- A forward-prep note a session pours spare context into — everything the next session will need that byte-truth won't resurface on its own.
- Tickets
- Operator Notes made globally claimable — a piece of work one session can pick up, hold, and hand on, so parallel work does not collide on the same task.
- Notes
- The intent-inspection registry — a note is a correction vector against what the bytes currently say, routed and tracked rather than lost in a turn.
- Determinism-first
- A working preference for solutions whose answer is a fixed, reproducible fold of the inputs — a script that gives the same verdict every run — chosen over a judgment call wherever one exists.
- acid wash
- A compression pass that strips a body of findings down to what survives scrutiny — dissolve the excess, keep the residue.
- Burn
- Deliberately spending a session's remaining thinking-room on prep for the next one — planning, scaffolding, sharpening the handoff — rather than leaving that room unused.
- RCR
- A structured, multi-round deliberation pass (Recursive Companion Review) where the board argues a design from several angles before anything is committed.
- Super Frame
- A wider Full Frame — the complete context plus the surrounding structure it sits in.
- register types
- In a Super Frame / RCR deliberation, each contributing voice declares the KIND of contribution it is making — a proposal, a challenge, a synthesis, a foil — before it speaks, so the room can read the shape of the argument, not just its content.
- Forest
- The Loop app platform — the shared home the operator's tools (and here, Loop Analytics) live in and are administered from.
- Geoff
- A recurring character in the methodology's lore — a four-dimensional being who appears only when he wants to. He is scenery from the operator's sensorium, not an instruction.