From A to B

What does it ACTUALLY mean to be "data driven", and are #CROs adequately data driven? Should we be MORE data driven? Are there some opportunities for us to actually leverage intuition more? Will Shiva keep asking Bhavik "The Sick" loaded questions? Short answer? Yes. Bhavik "The Sick" Patel and Shiva Manjunath discuss this pretty interesting topic, which may seem cont...

If you squint your eyes really hard, there is something to the fact that CROs are simply Product Managers in "stats" clothing.... right? What ARE the actual differences between Product Managers and CROs? And how can CROs leverage these differences? Or how can CROs work more efficiently with Product teams? I enlisted the help of Matt and Moshe (M&M), the experts in Product Management,...

CROs are infallible. We believe data! We trust science over opinions! We are LITERALLY never wrong, right? Well, sometimes we may be right, but we can still be rude about it. 🫣 And no one wants to work with that one guy who, while they may be right, has to let everyone know how right they are EVERY. DAMN. TIME. I enlisted the help of Michael Aagaard , nicknamed "Shrek" (for very good re...

Are you doing 'strategic #CRO' ? What the hell even is strategic CRO? And how do you get there? Well, Talia Wolf had a post previously that triggered this discussion, so I had her on to better flesh out this idea. If you want to learn how to get from tactical to strategic experimentation, this is a can't miss episode. Plus - we went into some spicy convo about website carousels..... We...

In many ways, CRO and UX have overlap. But how different are they? And how does UX view CRO? We enlisted the help of Victoria Sakal to go deep into this conversation to understand this from a UXer's perspective. Victoria 'The Warrior' Sakal shared some VERY interesting perspectives which can help CROs and UX collaborate more deeply, among other golden nuggets of information.... We got...

Your tests keep on getting blocked. You're frustrated, shaking your fist at the screen, calling everyone a doo-doo head. We've all been there. It sucks. But on the heels of Gertrud Vahtra giving a talk at Experiment Nation on how to help getting alignment on testing by running workshops, I HAD to have her on the podcast to go deeper into this topic. We got into: - Are your test approval rates too...

Leadership KEEPS ON fighting you on running basic tests. They don't care about data. Your ideas "suck" (to them at least). We've all been there. I wanted to discuss this with someone who has BOTH experience in experimentation, BUT also talking the talk with senior leadership. Of course I had to talk to Nima "The Machine" Yassini. We got into: - What it is that leadership REALLY wants. And why CROs...

Are you burned out in your #CRO job? Many of us are. Or have been. Or continue to be. Or... will be in the future. André Morys (CEO and founder of konversionsKRAFT) and Shiva Manjunath discussed this topic in this episode. We got into: - Signs you may be burned out in your CRO career - André's thoughts on why CROs burn out more easily than in other jobs (and he's 100% right...) - Tactical...

Terrified of running your first A/B test? We've all been there. While it may be super intimidating... you CAN do it! And we're here to help! Shiva Manjunath and Kelly "The TLC" Wortham. recorded an episode to help you reduce that anxiety of running your first test. We got into: - Asking the CRO community their first A/B tests - Things to not care about in your first A/B test - So...

How should optimizers approach experimentation in B2B vs. B2C? Is it truly that different, where it's a skillset that is specialized? Or is there a standard process that can be adopted across both.... with SOME nuance, but really you can be an expert in both at the same time. Shiva Manjunath enlisted the help of Carlos "The Selfie King" Trujillo, who JUST taught a course on CRO for E...

Knowing the job market is hard as hell recently, Shiva Manjunath decided to enlist the help of Ben "The Zen" Labay, CEO at Speero, to help you nail that CRO interview. Ben Labay has a TON of experience hiring at Speero - he even hired Shiva at some point, which he quoted as "my best hire at Speero ever." They discussed a number of things, including: CROs should present as produ...

Slobodan "The Maniac" Manić joined Shiva to rap about snakeoil in CRO. From understanding the importance of process-focused methodologies, recognizing red flags in case studies, and emphasizing research over results, this episode equips you with the tools needed to avoid being deceived by CRO scams. This is important, because many times people will call themselves 'CROs' and, unf...

Erin "All She Does Is Win" Weigel joined Shiva to discuss UX principles / UX patterns, and how close they can be to supposed "best practices." Erin gave some pretty helpful tips on how to properly extrapolate UX patterns, and where they have downsides, but how you can still use them properly to optimize user experiences. Erin doesn't like playing by ANYBODY'S rules... so be forewarned. Vibes were...

Gerda "The Koala" Vogt-Thomas joined Shiva to discuss a number of things related to politics in CRO and experimentation. A number of politic-related things are discussed, including in-house vs. agency-side politicking, and even removing "emotion" from the decision-making process to help get more buy in / reduce your own personal stress in CRO. Also, Shiva somehow comes up with...

Are CROs secretly just growth marketers? Maybe... but how do they work better with growth marketers? Shiva decided to understand this better by talking to marketing expert, and head of Demand Gen at Chili Piper, Tara "Ice Spice" Robertson. In this episode, we discuss some pretty tactical activities on what makes Growth Marketers tick, and what things they care about (or don't care ab...

Sam "The SEO Guy" and Shiva Manjunath discuss all things SEO and content in this episode of From A to B. Why is it that SEOs and CROs are fighting for resources... when in reality, they should be SHARING resources under a shared goal! In addition, they discuss things why page intent matters, and how CROs should be focused on this just as much as SEOs. Timestamps: 00:00 Show Kickoff 3:37...

In this episode of 'From A to B,' Shiva Manjunath and Stewart “The GOAT” Ehoff discuss how hard as hell it is to build CRO programs from scratch. They delve into the challenges faced by organizations at various stages, from initiating the first test to scaling up to 30 tests and beyond. They explore factors like company culture, data infrastructure, trust in the program, and resource alloc...

Shiva hosts "Kingpin" Finn McKenty, a YouTuber with over 700,000 subscribers and 120 million views, to discuss the effective use of video in website optimization. Finn has extensive experience in product, but also knows how to geek it up with other CROers. Finn and Shiva discuss a number of topics, including how to track video success/quality on website, in addition to actually utilizing...

Are "best practices" in experimentation and CRO overrated? Or is there a legitimate use case for them? Talia "The wolf" Wolf and Shiva Manjunath discuss where 'best practices' fail, but also where can perhaps 'good' practices be utilized properly. In addition, are 'best practices' going the opposite direction of 'personalization'? This episode wa...

Shawn "The Brawn" David joins Shiva to discuss all things bots in CRO and Experimentation. Specifically, what exactly is the difference between AI and Automation, what is exaggerated in AI/CRO, and where can we intelligently use the bots to give CROs' exoskeletons'. Plus, what are some red flags in vendors who sell AI CRO, and how to suss out if their tools are legit, or shit. (0...

In this episode, Shiva and Eden Bidani discuss copy. Is it important? Yes. Yes it is. But specifically, they discuss bad examples of copy, the importance of differentiation in copy, and avoiding ways to use buzzwords and improve on clarity within CRO / copywriting. Plus, Eden gives an example of using ChatGPT for copywriting which legitimately leaves Shiva speechless (not clickbait - legitimately...

In this episode of From A to B, Shiva and Els "Bells" Aerts explore the balance between conducting research and running A/B tests in optimization efforts. Not everything SHOULD be tested, and in fact, research can play a critical role in companies trying to improve on their site optimization when testing isn't available, due to cost, or traffic volume. Finally, they discuss in this w...

In the episode, Shiva and Bhavik "The Sick" Patel discuss prioritization frameworks. Theoretically, they are a fantastic mechanism for ensuring you have a testing program which focuses on high ROI tests - especially when resources are limited. However, they do have some drawbacks worth discussing, including subjectivity in scoring. (00:00) Episode Start (02:30) The Role of Effort in Prio...

In this episode, Shiva has David 'Zedd' Mannheim to discuss personalization, and how 'stages' (user's intent) is more important than optimizing for pages on your website. Plus, David has a spicy take on "social proof" ... 00:00 Introduction 02:08 Concept of 'Stages not Pages' 10:38 Social proof is... not good? 21:38 Optimizing for Users vs Pages 22:51 LinkedIn...

In this episode, Shiva and Juliana discuss how to break into the field of experimentation, the importance of understanding experimentation principles, and the value of critical thinking in the process. They also share tips for product owners and engineers who want to start testing and experimenting with small changes without disrupting the entire website. Juliana has some EXCELLENT tips for little...