Last year’s Conversion Jam saw the introduction of the Conversion Hero of the Year award by Conversionista. The goal of this award is to highlight individuals who have made significant strides in their experimentation programs and who actively share their CRO knowledge.
Many accomplished professionals competed for the title, each serving as an ambassador for CRO. To honor 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 Åsa Boffardi, Head of Analytics & Martech B2B at Telia. During the interview, Åsa worked as Head of Digital Analytics & CRO at Swedbank, which she refers to in the article.
It was a big surprise and honor! It's super important that the industry creates Heroes; CRO was a bit of an odd bird before. Now it's an integrated part of the work that's needed if you want to succeed digitally. The others who were nominated are very skilled, so it's great to be in the same context. Being nominated while working at a bank feels very exciting. It's nice that people have noticed what we do with our complex products with so many different "shopping carts". During the six years that have passed since we started our journey, we have come very far!
It's always fun to meet like-minded people who work with the same things I do. The speakers were enjoyable and good. There might not have been anything new, but those who were on stage were very skilled and inspiring. I really liked when they talked about mistakes too, it creates recognition and I think it's so important to talk about. That's when we really learn something.
It was a great event where they really brought the whole thing together - I like how they tied everything together. I should get my business to listen; sometimes people think it's super easy to increase conversion by 10%, it would make them understand more about the complexity and that you don't just have success stories. Then you shouldn't forget that the social part is also very fun.
Curiosity and humility towards the task, I find it incredibly fun to work with what I do. I love business value and customer value - achieving that connection drives me. Then I must say that I have such great colleagues and that the internal culture at the bank gives us the right conditions.
I also believe in constant communication. When we realized that many at the bank didn't understand what we were working on and what we could contribute, we realized we needed to communicate differently. That's when my colleague Johan Månströmer and I started a Data Culture Day for the entire bank, which we've held twice so far. It's a full day where we showcase what we do, how others use data, and what we have contributed. We need to reach out to everyone because we depend on so many different teams. As I see it, optimization is a craft, and we're making great progress. We're a huge bank, and there are several ways to reach out to all employees about what we do. By thinking innovatively, we optimize ourselves as well.
I actually don't know if the way we work differs from others. We work across several different areas, very close to the business, but also close to developers and the UX community at the bank. We try to be everywhere, with development teams, sales managers, marketing departments, etc. In our dialogues, we try to be a constant source of knowledge about customer behavior and areas for improvement. We look at both the products individually and the entire channels. Sometimes we say that we are the voice of customers - we understand customer behavior and our focus is to make the entire journey seamless. We definitely work cross-functionally.
Don’t be afraid to make mistakes. To be open about what's happening. Dare to test! We are a bank, and it's so important that what we do is right for our customers. To handle the needs of our customers and the bank, we need to constantly test and develop ourselves as well. It's important that we always try to be our best.
To maintain our focus as well - we work for a sustainable economy for our customers. If we do well, it will have a positive impact on the customers.
Another important success factor is to anchor the work. To work with what we do and gain understanding from many people that changes should be made with decisions based on data, it's a cultural issue that we work a lot with.
I am very interested in this field. Staying updated is enjoyable and not burdensome. I read a book on the subject every week, try to log into webinars, attend seminars, and subscribe to newsletters, etc. I'm simply the biggest nerd!
Everyone in my team also likes to stay updated. Every Friday, we have a "Sharing is Caring" session focused on the question, "What did you learn this week?" It's rewarding because we always have something new to share.
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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