Why Most Analytics Implementations Fail Before the First Report

By the time a dashboard looks wrong, the cause is usually months upstream: a measurement plan that was never written, or a tagging convention that drifted as the site changed.

The work that happens before any tag

A measurement plan is a short document that names the questions the business actually wants answered, the events that answer them, and the parameters each event must carry. It is unglamorous, and it is the single best predictor of whether the data will be trusted later.

Conventions over cleverness

Consistent naming, a clear consent model, and a defined owner for the container matter more than any individual tag. The goal is a setup that the next person can read and extend without guessing.

This is a working note — expect it to be revised as practices settle.