In the latest Conversion Jam, Conversionista presented the Conversion Hero of the Year award for the first time. This award is intended to highlight individuals who have excelled in their experimentation programs and who actively share their knowledge of CRO.
Many skilled professionals competed for the title, each serving as an ambassador for CRO. To recognize their efforts and inspire our readers, we will be conducting an interview series with all the nominees throughout the fall of 2024. This interview features Sofia Staaf, an independent CRO, Experimentation & Personalization Consultant, also connected to ConversionHub. Former CRO Personalization & Analytics lead at Coop.
It feels incredibly significant! I feel grateful, humble, and proud of this nomination and to share the stage with such strong stars in the industry. It feels fantastic to be recognized for the work that my team and I have done, which has been an incredibly exciting and educational journey. I am also very thankful for all the other amazing people I have had the opportunity to work with over the years in CRO, who have also contributed to this nomination.
It was a very inspiring and enjoyable day that provided a lot of energy. It was especially fun to meet all the professional people in the industry in person again after the break during Covid. There was a good mix of speakers and entertaining elements, which made the day both lighthearted and rewarding.
One of my biggest driving forces is the constant desire to develop, both individually and as part of a team. Teamwork and relationship-building are things I highly value, especially in CRO & Personalization, where a key to success is the ability to work with many different types of skills and personalities to achieve results together. Another major driving force is my constant curiosity and interest in people and their behaviors. The drive to create insights and continuously learn about customers is a significant success factor. Gaining experience from various types of companies and industries with different challenges has also been very rewarding.
We have had the opportunity to build the team from scratch, which has allowed us to create a team with the right skills in the right order based on needs, letting the team grow organically. This has also enabled us to build our own framework, establish a process together with stakeholders in the organization, and define a long-term experimentation strategy to implement and run an experiment program with the goal of building an experimental culture. An important part of this work has been sharing insights about our users in an engaging way and demonstrating the value of the experiments we conduct, aiming to gain support from both management and the rest of the organization. If others do not understand what we are doing or the value it brings, it becomes less important. Therefore, transparency and knowledge sharing are crucial to getting everyone on board.
If you are just starting to implement an experimentation program, a good tip is to begin with simple tests aimed at broad segments to learn about your users, your data, your testing tool, and to establish an experimentation process. Initially, the focus should be on increasing the testing speed, learning, and iterating. Once the process has been running for a while, you can shift to focusing more on qualitative tests for narrower segments to start seeing the effects of your experimentation program. A key success factor is to work towards becoming an integrated part of product development and, together with product owners, agree on dedicated time from the backlog for implementing test results. Patience, curiosity, and teamwork are essential ingredients for success.
I follow many profiles and companies on LinkedIn within CRO and personalization, where I catch up on emerging trends, get inspired, and learn from others' experiences. I am also active in the CRO community, particularly on Slack, where we help each other answer specific questions or solve current challenges. I try to attend seminars and events, and take digital courses as much as I can to stay continuously updated. Overall, it's mostly about being curious, seeking information, and most importantly, continuously learning about your customers.
Be part of an unforgettable event on October 17th, 2024, in Stockholm, filled with insights, inspiration, and the celebration of the brightest minds in CRO.
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