Conversation Starters of the Week – October 14, 2021

Every week, Rommil Santiago shares interesting LinkedIn posts that he runs across to help spark ideas and conversation. Here are this week’s finds:


1) From Diane Wiredu

Most landing pages suck.

Prospects are scrambling for the exit button because of sloppy copy, confusing design and all the value buried down the page.

All mistakes that could be easily avoided with some key fixes and a better understanding of how to approach messaging. I’ve got my theory…

But I want to know… what do you think is the most important part of a landing page?

Join the conversation: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/dianewiredu_copywriting-marketing-cro-ugcPost-6853260391917740032-VWd6/


2) From Yongi Barnard

Yongi Barnard

?Best practices are killing your website’s conversions. So STOP! ?

Here’s what you should do instead:??

?Use your analytics to see where the bottlenecks are

?Research. Research. Research.

?Talk to your sales team. Know their tricks. Then figure out a way to recreate that on your website.

?Watch how your website visitors behave using a heat map

?And most importantly, don’t get too attached to your web pages.

?Acknowledge that your website is a living specimen. And it’s a testing ground.


3) From Tim Mehta

Is anyone using Jira (and Confluence) to manage their experimentation program?

Would love to learn how y’all are leveraging it!

Join the conversation: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/timmehta_experimentation-cro-activity-6852632733143961600-VrtV


4) From Alexander Atzberger

Check this out, this is very cool – if you like economics! Yesterday David Card, Joshua Angrist and Guido Imbens won the 2021 Nobel economics prize for pioneering “natural experiments” to show real-world economic impact. Then my good friend Lalitha Rajagopalan pointed out to me that Guido Imben’s wife Susan Athey teaches economics at Stanford and publishes on A/B Testing and experimentation. In one of her notes (link below) she writes: “The term (A/B Testing) is widely used in the tech industry, where NOTHING changes at tech firms like Google, Facebook, Amazon, etc. without the change going through an A/B testing process.”

Join the conversation: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/aatzberger_how-do-academic-economists-use-ab-testing-activity-6854073260305379328-KLcQ


5) From Gayle Allen, Ed.D., MBA

Why are experiments one of the most overlooked forms of innovation? Stefan Thomke and I talk about this on Curious Minds at Work https://bit.ly/3oab406 

Join the conversation: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/gayleallen_leadership-innovation-experimentation-activity-6853343684566544384-cM4Q

Conversation Starters of the Week

Every week, Rommil Santiago, shares interesting LinkedIn posts that he runs across to help spark ideas and conversation. Here are this week’s finds:


1) From Ronny Kohavi

“In software, we often abort A/B tests (randomized controlled experiments) that are clearly negative and hurt users (https://lnkd.in/eWuqBVw), but we never abort a positive experiment; if anything, we would either start a larger experiment or a replication run. 

Merck announced Oct 1st that the results of Molnupiravir, an Oral Antiviral drug for COVID-19, are so good, they cut the trial short (https://lnkd.in/gUwqeBVA).

Health care is known to move slow, but there is also a push for more evidence-based health care. Is this such an example where we could do better by continuing the trial, and/or running a larger trial UNTIL Emergency Use Authorization is given? I’d love to hear from experts about why this decision makes sense in health care but not in the software world.”

Join the conversation: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/ronnyk_experimentguide-abtesting-healthcaredata-activity-6850519831188516864-tHKl


2) From Jonny Longden

“I know it’s an old debate, but it’s an interesting one nevertheless: should CRO be called that or should it be called something else?

It’s not just semantics and detail – the issue is much deeper.

The fact is that most people view CRO as a kind of hacking and tactical ‘tweaking’ of small stuff, which is 100% wrong and means they are missing out on massive potential benefit.

What it really is, is simply using the scientific method to de-risk everything you do through proof. This can fuel big things and it can also improve a tonne of stuff which isn’t conversion.

So no, the name doesn’t do it any favours.”

Join the conversation: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/jonnylongden_should-cro-be-called-cro-activity-6850789848748449794-Gaor


3) From Aditi Gupta

“Product growth is not just top funnel acquisition, it happens at multiple touchpoints through out the customer journey. In my session for Product Drive this year I will talk about the 6 levers of growth and share some best practises around them.
Sign up here – https://lnkd.in/gazCg38k

Join the conversation: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/aditigupta02_product-growth-is-not-just-top-funnel-acquisition-activity-6850484089280180224-3HIz


4) From Jason Vana

“Can you fit your brand strategy on 1 page?

If not, it’s likely too complex.”

Join the conversation: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/jasonvana_brandstrategy-activity-6850763126988644352–Hao