Zilker Trail Consulting

Let’s go Ryan Abelman!

If you will be in Chicago on Wednesday, here is a great opportunity to meet Brian Cahak. We’d love to see you there!

Happy Friday! If you run an experimentation program, get ready for a shocking statistic: 88% of A/B tests fail to achieve a statistically significant win over the original experience. Read more on the Zilker blog (link in comments)

Did you know that 88% of A/B tests fail to achieve a statistically significant win? That's a shockingly high failure rate, but it's a reality that top experimentation companies have long accepted. As Experimentation Lead Keith Swiderski explains in this video, a failure rate that high is actually the norm - and striving for a much higher "success" rate could be holding your experimentation program back. This video covers several key points: -??A test "failing" doesn't mean it lost - it just didn't move the needle enough to be considered a true winner over the original experience. -??If your win rate is significantly higher than 15-20%, you may be playing it too safe with low-risk tests unlikely to deliver big wins. This feels good in the short-term but has a massive opportunity cost. -?Winning percentage isn't the best metric - focus instead on revenue lift, incrementality, or a batting average of incremental value delivered per test. -?With such a high failure rate baked in, you have to make big, risky bets alongside safer tests to outperform and drive outsized returns. Many of the world's greatest inventions and innovations didn't come from people just playing it safe. They came from taking smart risks and having the tenacity to treat "failures" as learning opportunities on the path to breakthroughs. In the world of experimentation, it's easy to get caught up in wanting tests to "win" and have a high stated success rate. But making low-risk changes won't unlock exponential growth. You have to take calculated shots and make big bets, recognizing most will "fail" but that the few huge winners will more than make up for it. So don't be afraid to take bigger swings in your experimentation program. Design bold experiences that could move the needle in huge ways, even if that means a lower "win" percentage. As the masters of experimentation have shown, playing it safe simply won't cut it if you want industry-leading results. Drop a comment if you have any other tips for reframing how we think about experimentation "failures"!

Delivering successful digital products requires a strategic approach that combines user research, cross-functional alignment, and a methodical development process. At Zilker Trail, we understand the challenges companies face in creating user-centric products that truly resonate with their target audience. That's why our experts share their insights in two must-read articles on the Zilker blog. First, Sarah Bowlin, Senior Research Consultant, discusses the crucial role of user research in product development. Discover how embedding user insights throughout the product lifecycle can lead to cost-effective, user-centric designs that meet customer needs from day one. Read more: https://lnkd.in/eFuX_9qF Next, Sam Wettling, Director of Growth Strategy, explores bridging the alignment gap as the key to successful product development. Learn practical strategies for fostering collaboration among marketing, product, and data teams, ensuring everyone is working towards shared goals. Read more: https://lnkd.in/eAkbjJbi Don't miss out on these valuable insights from our experts. Whether you're a product manager, marketer, or developer, these articles offer actionable tips to elevate your product development process and deliver exceptional digital experiences. Unlock your product's full potential today. Learn from our experts and reach out to Zilker Trail to take the next steps towards product success.

A "Fire Drill Mentality" towards research can hinder your product development process, leading to slower timelines, higher costs, and a product that may not meet your customers' needs. Senior Research Consultant Sarah Bowlin recently joined Keith Swiderski to discuss how an embedded and integrated research approach is a more efficient and effective way to deliver products that resonate with your target audience. Don't treat research as a side task for your product teams - leverage dedicated research experts. At Zilker Trail Consulting, our full-service research team is ready to seamlessly integrate with your organization, providing valuable insights that drive successful product development. Reach out to Sarah or Zilker Trail Consulting today to learn how our embedded research model can benefit your next product launch.

One of the most beneficial features of the Zilker Trail Product Development Life Cycle is the seamless integration of Design. Our process encompasses typical design tasks but adds two critical quality checkpoints to ensure the designed solution will result in a material improvement over the current baseline. Explore the Zilker Trail approach on our blog. https://lnkd.in/eHEM985D

Go get it today!

Prioritization is a critical job to be done as part of the Zilker Trail Product Development Life Cycle. This work is done by reviewing all of the insights, problems, and hypothetical solutions and developing a catalog of all items of what could be built. But how do you determine what should be built? Learn more on the Zilker Blog. https://lnkd.in/dk_-BgQZ

“Part strategist, part technologist, and part therapist” Marketing, product team, data teams are all working hard, but all have their own visions of what great looks like. This is a very real problem and can result in the wrong customers being acquired, product features that no one asked for being prioritized, and beautiful data silos being built that are delivering no insights. Sam Wettling, Director of Growth Strategy and Amplitude Practice Lead, discusses these challenges and a surprisingly easy way to begin to overcome them. Just get in a room and talk (about anything), and the barriers will start to come down. The smallest human connection can be a catalyst for breaking down the most complex business problems that you face. Sam also reminds us that, at the end of the day, it’s not about KPIs, but it’s about “making ravenous fans out of whatever it is you’re trying to put in front of them”. And that’s a goal that we can all align on.