[Bespoke Tools] GrowthRunner Devtools Extension

Intro

Complex tasks with no room for error are prime candidates for automation - so when GrowthRunner reached out to automate their entire analytics process, I jumped at the chance to showcase what bespoke tools can do.

I partnered with Growthrunner, the expert analytics tracking agency founded by Nitesh Sharoff, to create a custom dev tools extension that reduced their auditing and implementation time by 90%, automating monotonous tasks and improving overall efficiency.

The Issue

Growthrunner specializes in advanced analytics and tracking for iconic brands, including Wagamama and Net-a-Porter. Auditing analytics setups is integral to their lead generation, day-to-day implementations, and billable hours.

These audits require a specialist to meticulously comb through client sites to review tracking events, checking each payload and implementation. This process is error-prone and monotonous, yet highly specialized, full of edge cases humans can easily miss.

Audits are the bread and butter of Growthrunner's analytics setup and lead generation model—a MIS implementation can cost clients hundreds of thousands, so there's no room for error.

My task was to free up the expert Growthrunner team to do more high-value work and worry less about mistakes at scale.

A Bespoke Devtools Development for Growthrunner

My automation of 90% of the auditing process for Growthrunner addressed the pain point of lengthy, manual auditing. It now provides a quick snapshot of analytics health and efficiently directs engineers to make necessary changes.

We reduced tasks from multiple hours to minutes by leveraging Chrome's recording actions, building a dataLayer listener that plays back recorded user actions, and simulating typical user journeys, clicks, and navigation throughout a client site—complete with screenshots and timestamps.

Then, we matched those actual events against expected events to provide a snapshot of analytics health, helping implementation engineers make and test changes without a lengthy, manual, tiresome human process.

In just two weeks, I delivered an advanced Chrome Devtools MVP that the Growthrunner team could use immediately to speed up everything from pitches to deliverables.

Key features:

* A bespoke Devtools Extension for Growthrunner

* An Analytics DataLayer Observer that tracks and categorizes all events

* User Action Tracking for clicks, text inputs, and more

* An extension of Google Chrome's Recording API to audit and play back actions

This custom tool has revolutionized Growthrunner's workflow, allowing them to focus on strategy and growth while significantly reducing the time spent on routine auditing tasks.