Lesson: Data-Driven Decisions with Mike Greenfield

Step #7 Experimentation: Numbers and intuition

At Circle of Moms we try to have a culture of experimenting and measuring throughout the team, and I think inevitably some people take to it more than others and are better at it than others. Anybody that was creating something that was user-facing knew that we were going to measure things. Whether that was the designer, or an engineer, or someone writing content, they knew that we were going to test things, and we were ultimately going to make decisions based on numbers.

I think that a lot of the editorial team wasn't necessarily what they naturally gravitated towards, but they came to realize over time, “Okay, these kinds of posts generally seem to do well, and these kinds of posts generally seem to not do well," and having that intuition about it winds up becoming pretty important. Something that I think is helpful is occasionally asking people, whether it's in person or in writing, "What are some things that you notice that are more effective, and what are some things that are less effective?” and then maybe take a step back, and say, “Okay, do I see any trends here?” That can help to make the process a little bit more intuitive, and might give people a stronger understanding of, “Okay, this kind of design tends to work better, this kind of wording tends to work better."