Yesterday, I was in a meeting with our Account Management team and during our discussion this important question came-up that; being an optimization expert, how do you go about defending your analysis and make your hypothesis provocative and convincing enough for the clients to test on? Doesn’t client push back and ask for that MISSING REFERENCE POINT which builds confidence, instill trust and gives them a hope that; it’s really worth testing out this hypothesis?
This is one of the biggest conundrum every optimization expert has to go through at the beginning of their career because, at that stage, you have limited reference points to back on and without that; it’s extremely difficult to connect with the prospect and build that credibility. The fun part is, as you progress further in your career path and reach a stage where, your hypothesis are based more on past reference points and less on data, you become another HIPPO for your client:-)
The big question is, how would you maintain a balance between your analysis and reference points, and create a story-line which is convincing enough for the clients to test on? After all, you don’t want to be perceived as another HIPPOJ
Below mentioned are some of the interesting lessons learned while chasing an answer to the above question over these years:
DON’T GET OBSESSED WITH YOUR OWN ANALYSIS
This is a fundamental problem we all analyst faces while finding the opportunities for optimization and during this journey, we often miss an important that; without the context, the quantitative analysis turns in to quantitative paralysis, and we get so obsessed to prove our point that; we often get ignored by the client business team despite of those beautiful insights we bring on the table. We talk loud with all those powerful engagement and conversion measures (weighted bounce rate, exit rate, avg. time spent/visit, visit depth, cart abandonment, cart fallouts etc.) that; sometimes you feel like hitting your head on the wall and get that weird perception that; are they really so dumb that they can’t see what I am seeing ;-)
DON’T ALWAYS THINK LIKE AN END CONSUMER
This is one of the universal problem we all analyst faces while doing our analysis. We often believe ourselves as the end-consumer advocate, and make every possible attempt to prove our point on behalf of that silent end-consumer. We talk about usability, we talk about common-sense, we talk about best practices and so on and sometimes, it just doesn’t connect with the client and make it extremely frustrating for the analyst.
SOMETIMES IT’S GOOD TO EMPATHIZE WITH YOUR CLIENT COUNTERPART
After all, he/she is the decision maker, have the better business context than us, aware with the upcoming design and workflow initiatives, have specific targets which shouldn’t be achieved in a collaborative fashion and most importantly, doesn’t want to focus on those areas or sections of the website, which doesn’t influence his/her monthly and quarterly targets. I know, I am trying to be a devil’s advocate here but, it’s an extremely important point to focus on while finding the opportunities for optimization because, you don’t want your insights to confront the deaf ears. As a best practice, always give weight-age to the perspective of your client’s business counterpart, and make them feel respected because, without their support, it’s almost impossible to convert your beautiful test hypothesis in to meaningful tests.
ALWAYS REMEMBER THOSE INTERESTING REFERENCE POINTS
Despite of all those wonderful insights you bring on the table, the two fundamental questions asked by every client are:
- Have you tested the similar hypothesis with other online businesses?
- If yes, what kind of lift you got and how long it lasted?
If you think from client’s perspective, both are legitimate questions and should be considered while presenting our analysis to the client business counterpart. It can be answered via past case studies or client reference calls. In the past, we tried answering these questions on the basis of our unique testing framework, use case analysis approach, our test execution methodology, and how do we leverage the outcome of the tests and prepare the clients for targeting and personalization but honestly, it didn’t fly much because, after all, every competitive firm in the market has something unique about their methodology and framework, and how much you are going to differentiate with them but, having some powerful case studies, live wireframes and personalized reference calls makes a huge impact to your analysis story-line, and make it really convincing and provocative for the end client.
At the end, I would like to learn more from my peers and seasoned optimization experts on, how exactly are you defending your analysis and creating a test-driven culture in your organizations.
Happy Reading and Happy Women's Day:-)