Madumok

Lessons Learned Testing and Optimization Tales from the Field Max van der Heijden is a user experience and conversion specialist at Google who works with companies across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Max shares his thoughts about how companies can build a culture of growth and experimentation. How many times have you launched new features or page designs on your website without testing first? In an ideal world, companies should test everything before rolling out site changes. But some websites have too little traffic to generate credible results from experiments, and some bugs should just be fixed if they prevent users from achieving their goal. At the very least, analyze your analytics data and use qualitative methods such as user tests and surveys to validate any improvement ideas you have before implementing. If you have the traffic volume: Test! I�m part of a team at Google that works with advertisers to identify opportunities for improving website user experiences through...

Why Your Testing and Optimization Team Needs a Data Storyteller If a test happens on your website and nobody hears about it, does it make a sound? Not to get too philosophical, but thats one of the big challenges of building a culture of growth and optimization: getting the word out. Thats why a data storyteller is one of the key members of any testing team. In fact, �communication and data storytelling� was noted as a critical skill for a person who leads testing and optimization efforts, according to a survey of marketing leaders who conduct tests and online experiments. 1 The must-have skills rounding out the top three were leadership and, the obvious, analytics. A data storyteller is part numbers-cruncher, part internal marketer, and part ace correspondent from the testing trenches. He or she is someone who can take the sheer data of testing � the stacks of numbers, the fractional wins and losses, the stream of daily choices � and turn it into a narrative that will excite the tea...

Why Building a Culture of Optimization Improves the Customer Experience How can we be more useful to our customers today? Thats the simple question that drives any marketing organization focused on testing, improvement, and growth. But answering the question is not always so simple in our data-rich world. The old challenge of gathering enough data has been replaced by a new one: gleaning insights from the mountains of data we�ve collected � and taking action. In response to this flood of data, many of todays most successful businesses have turned to a new approach: building whats called a culture of growth and optimization . This growth-minded culture is one where everyone is ready to: Test everything  Value data over opinion  Keep testing and learning, even from failures  Most companies have a few people who are optimizers by nature, interest, or experience. Some may even have a �growth team.� But what really moves the dial is when everyone in the company is on board an...