F#ck Data
The inner dialog of many a marketer.
Me: New idea for the homepage.
Myself: What is it?
Me: A way of describing who we are and what we do. But better.
Myself: You should test it.
Me: Meaning?
Myself: A/B test it. With or without the new idea. Which performs best.
Me: What if it doesn’t win?
Myself: We don’t use it.
Me: I really believe in this idea.
Myself: I’m sure you do.
Me: How long are we going to test it for?
Myself: About three weeks.
Me: What if it loses for three weeks, and then has a positive bigger-picture impact?
Myself: It’ll still be in the data.
Me: How can bigger-picture be in the data?
Myself: We can only judge what we can measure.
Me: So we can’t see the bigger picture. In the data.
Myself: Is that a question?
Me: No.
Myself: The data will tell us what we should do.
Me: What data?
Myself: If B lost to A. The test failed.
Me: I know that.
Myself: What do you want to do?
Me: I don’t know.
Myself: What do you want to do?
Me: I’d like to punch a wall.
Myself: Grow up.
Me: I want it on our homepage regardless. It shows who we are.
Myself: Don’t be such a fucking HiPPO.
Me: I spent serious time on this idea.
Myself: So run a test.
Me: I am.
Myself: And what’s the outcome so far? In the test?
Me: It’s performing slightly worse.
Myself: So?
Me: So we need to find a way to make it work.
Myself: Or, you could trust the data and give up.
Me: Fuck off.
Myself: You proved it doesn’t work, all by yourself.
Me: I want it to work.
Myself: The data says it doesn’t.
Me: Fuck data.
Myself: Does that mean you’ll implement it regardless?
(Post originally appeared on Medium).
E-Commerce Got Hard. I'm Here To Help. | Scaling Brands thru DTC & Amazon | Built 2 Multi-Million Dollar E-Commerce Businesses
8 年so great!
Digital Strategist @ RISE | Driving Digital Growth, Marketing Solutions
8 年Loved it. Funny and spot on for many of us. It also hides a deeper question: What if the idea or concept or product in itself is a long hauler. Let's say we'd like to change the way we portrait a product. Go a completely different way than history and competitors. Just beacuse we want to take another position. Or change the game in total. How much A/B-testing will it take to find out if the way is the right one or wrong one. How much stamina holds the data for you?
Creating human connections in a digital world ???? Your Copy | Comms | Creativity partner for emerging tech . CreaTech . Immersive . AI ?? + Nova Is Lost .?? ? ? Creative Lab ???
8 年I love this, Oli. Glorious start to my day!