In the dynamic world of conversion rate optimization (CRO) and running experimentation programs, the ideation phase is one of the most crucial elements to a successful experimentation program.
However, even the most seasoned experts can fall prey to certain pitfalls during this ongoing stage of the program. By recognizing and addressing these common mistakes, businesses can significantly enhance their approach to their experimentation programs, ultimately leading to improved website performance and user experience.
Mistake 1: Overlooking User Research and Data Analysis
One of the most significant mistakes in the ideation phase is neglecting the importance of comprehensive user research and data analysis. It's tempting to rely on intuition, past experiences, or “best practices” but without a deep understanding of your current audience's behavior and needs, concepts may not resonate the same as they did for other businesses or websites, even if they seem to work for your competitors.
Solution
Businesses should invest time and resources in gathering qualitative and quantitative data to use as a foundation for ideation. Utilize tools like user surveys, heatmaps, and analytics platforms to gain insights into how visitors interact with your site. There’s a plethora of tools out there with plans and prices that can fit the needs of small start-ups with smaller budgets to enterprise-level companies with bigger budgets, some of which are completely free.
This data-driven approach ensures that your hypotheses for optimization are grounded in real user experiences, making your test or optimization concepts more likely to succeed.
If your team is struggling to turn your research insights into solid test ideas, our article will help: Turn Research Insights to Test Ideas.
Mistake 2: Failing to Set Clear Objectives and KPIs
Without well-defined objectives and key performance indicators (KPIs), it's challenging to measure the success of your CRO efforts and make informed decisions. It’s important to understand the overall objective for your program along with identifying the key metrics that will roll up into those program objectives to measure success. Ideation without direction can lead to scattered experimentation, or as some call it the “spaghetti method”, that lacks focus and fails to move the needle on your primary business goals.
Solution
Before diving into brainstorming, take a step back to define what success looks like for your program. What are the overall objectives? What metrics can you track throughout the funnel to validate success?
First, determine your “swimlanes” or areas of the site for testing. Next, identify specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) objectives, and align your KPIs within each swimlane accordingly. This clarity will guide your ideation process, ensuring that each experiment is purposeful and contributes to your overarching goals.
We recently published a blog on this topic that can help your team home in on what key metrics to focus on: The Primary Metric Debate: Money Metrics vs. B.S. Metrics.
Mistake 3: Ignoring the Importance of Prioritization
In the realm of website experimentation, the possibilities can seem endless, and endless they are! However, not all ideas are created equal, and failing to prioritize them can lead to wasted time and resources on low-impact initiatives. It’s important to choose a prioritization method (there’s several out there) and incorporate it into your ideation methodology before building out your testing roadmap.
Solutions
Implement a structured framework for prioritizing experiments, such as the ICE (Impact, Confidence, Ease) model, PIE (Potential, Importance, Ease) model, or CXL’s PXL framework (goes much more in depth than the other two mentioned).
After you’ve generated ideas from an ideation session or research method, you’ll use one of the prioritization methods mentioned above to help you score each concept. This prioritization ensures that you focus your efforts on the experiments most likely to provide valuable insights and significant improvements to your testing efforts.
TL;DR
Ideation is a critical phase in the CRO and website experimentation process, especially when done correctly. By focusing on data-driven decision-making, setting clear objectives, and prioritizing ideas effectively, businesses and experimentation program owners can avoid these common mistakes. Embracing a structured approach to ideation not only streamlines your experimentation efforts but also sets the stage for meaningful improvements in website performance and user experience.
Remember, the goal is not just to test for the sake of testing, but to test smartly, with purpose and precision.
Newsletter
Want to stay ahead of the curve on crucial topics like this? Don't miss out on future insights, tips, and strategies from Chirpy!
>> Subscribe to our weekly newsletter now for exclusive content delivered straight to your inbox. 📬
