Welcome to Briefly Experimental
Every two weeks we'll deliver the best experimentation content and commentary, curated by a member of the Speero team. We'll break things down into the four key pillars needed for any successful experimentation program.
This edition was written by Paul Randall, Experimentation Strategist at Speero. If you'd like to geek out with Paul on any topic mentioned in this newsletter, just hit reply and you'll reach him directly.
Edition 13, September
Strategy & Culture
🏢 Testing Insights from Microsoft
In the latest episode of Testing Insights Speero MD, Ben Labay spoke to Tim Mehta, Experimentation Program Manager at Microsoft about the ins and outs of his testing program. The pair discuss metrics taxonomy, the connection between product strategy and metric strategy, and guardrail metrics. Watch the show.
🕔 Time management is more crucial than ever
At Speero, we’ve recently enforced a ‘no meeting Mondays’ protocol to enable us to have more control over our individual time and how we spend it.
Many of us have been part of the workplace revolution in the last 18 months and while physical locations may have changed, working hours and start/finish times remain very similar. This article from Fast Company suggests that flexibility can go one further than location and put the control in the hands of the individual to focus on output, not hours.
Hard deadlines and solid output goals are suggested as ways to manage this approach which enables the team to find the time that works best for them to find efficiencies in their day.
Process & Methodology
🏥 Example of an intentional positive friction from Bouy Health
You may have heard the term ‘frictionless’ used as a term to describe a positive user experience. “Let’s make the experience frictionless” - I know I’ve said this more than once.
Joana de Quintanilha, Forrester’s VP Principal Analyst suggests that harnessing positive friction can actually bring benefits. It may not be such a bad thing, after all, provided it’s positive.
Joana says that finding the appropriate level of friction drives a level of emotional engagement that earns customers trust, creates brand advocates, and drives loyalty behaviors such as retention and advocacy.
Positive friction may involve adding animation or delaying the authentication journey so that the activation email lands in your inbox at just the right time!
In another example, Buoy Health included intentional positive friction to ask visitors to fill in a symptom questionnaire. This decreased the rate of uncertainty about their health concerns from 34% to 21% and lessened the emotional intensity of arranging a consultation.
It’s certainly worth reviewing where positive friction could be included to increase emotional engagement, whether it is a feeling of pride, worthiness or reassurance, this elevates an experience over a purely transactional one whether speed is the goal (and quite easily forgotten).
People & Skills
🚪"Always on" norm has serious consequences
42% of women and 35% of men in Corporate America have felt burned out in the last few months. That is a shocking statistic uncovered in a recent “Women in the Workplace Report” by LeanIn.Org and McKinsey & Company.
This is up from 32% and 28% respectively last year. Despite this research shows that women do more to combat it.
The article in Harvard Business Review outlines some approaches that individuals and organizations can to address this worrying statistic. Setting company-wide norms and ensuring that employees aren’t expected to be “always on” is one such way to take pressure off.
When managers actively managed the workload, the staff were 32% less likely to be burned out and 33% less likely to leave.
Manager’s roles are also highlighted to ensure that they are equipped with the training and resources to lead and support their employees.
Despite the individuals surveyed, it’s ultimately up to the companies themselves to ensure that staff aren’t choosing the alternative to downshift their role or leave altogether (one in three women surveyed said they considered this)
👀 Job opportunities
Here are a few interesting roles that have been posted in the past week.
- VP, Digital Experimentation & Analytics at Chase (New York/Wilmington, US)
- Director of Conversion at Graphite (Remote, US)
- Senior Experimentation Strategist at Speero (Remote, US)
- Experimentation Expert at ING (Amsterdam, Netherlands)
- e-Commerce CRO Specialist at JACOBS DOUWE EGBERTS (Utrecht, Netherlands)
- CRO Specialist at Asgoodasnew (Berlin/Remote, Germany)
- Web Conversion Specialist at Albelli (Barcelona, Spain)
Data & Tools
Data & T
🍪 The future of personalization
51% of marketers surveyed consider improving personalization to be their top priority, but surveys suggest that few are still harnessing the potential. The article by Econsultancy lists three key takeaways for the future of personalization.
With proposed changes to Google’s third-party cookie policy and recent iOS changes the advice suggests that we should look to rely less on cookies and instead have a plan to enhance first-party data collection and harnessing. The article also highlights the importance of personalization not simply for acquiring customers, but retaining them as well. Data from SmarterHQ has revealed that 72% of customers will only engage with messaging that is curated.
What’s obvious is that this is being demanded by customers. 72% of customers surveyed will only engage with messaging that’s curated and 91% are more likely to shop with brands that provide tailored recommendations.
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