Having a framework helps one in aligning one's goals and strategies and build a proper roadmap; conversion rate optimization is no exception. Having a broad idea helps you assess your resources better to carry out different experiments. This article suggests an approach or a strategy to help you build your own roadmap.
Why it is important to maintain a testing roadmap
You may want to test something, but how will you decide what you are to test? The question can't have a single answer, and it will depend on the choice of experts. However, can there be consistent criteria to answer this question? Steven Pavlovich, CEO of conversion.com, says: "It moves you from tactical to strategic testing. That means you're better able to analyze and react to new data on customer behavior. It also gives visibility to the rest of the organization on your testing. This allows better communication."
What should be your strategy towards a testing roadmap?
You may have discovered a list of test concepts and you may also know how you are to prioritize and plan your work over a period of time. Different people may have different ideas and approaches towards it, but you can try out this idea:
- Keep it lean
- Maximize resources
- Strike a balance
Predicting the future is difficult but it is possible to adjust one's plans based on one's learnings. Emma Travis, conversion expert, writes: "What I've found works best is reviewing the roadmap on a weekly basis, tracking progress and making tweaks where necessary. This means things don't get out of hand and it's essentially always "up-to-date'."
The most important thing here is that if something is easy in A/B Testing, just stop all the debates and start running the test. In controlled online experiments, the key observation is finding out whether a controlled experiment is cheap enough to run; only then following other evaluation methods makes sense.
It is important to maintain a balance as attaining short-term iterative capabilities is tricky, and there is no real science behind it. Stephen Pavlovich says, “You need to get the balance right. Build a roadmap that's too short, and you can't plan far enough ahead and leverage the benefits of a testing roadmap."
The limits of roadmapping
Should there be any limit on the velocity of roadmapping? Should one have a better plan based on new knowledge? No matter what your strategy is, maintaining a roadmap will be a big task. You can have a strong plan but things will change and so will your resources, insights, and results.
Conclusion
There are different approaches towards prioritizing experiments and building a testing roadmap, but one thing that we can agree on is the importance of having a roadmap in place. The way you reiterate will depend on a variety of factors such as resources and organizational politics. You should build a roadmap that makes optimization a visible process.