Log in or create a free Rosenverse account to watch this video.
Log in Create free account100s of community videos are available to free members. Conference talks are generally available to Gold members.
Summary
Experimentation can be intimidating to non-data science folk. But Erin wants to get everyone excited about A/B testing. In this talk, Erin shares the Conversion Design process. It centers A/B testing as a way to gather high-quality evidence to make highly informed decisions to improve your digital product. She also introduces the Good Experimental Design toolkit. These easy-to-follow templates usher teams through the logic needed to design trustworthy experiments that you can learn from.
Key Insights
-
•
Conversion design combines design, science, and business to intentionally create measurable improvements, not just arbitrary changes.
-
•
Ronald Fisher’s 1919 work exposed how poor experimental design led to decades of unreliable scientific data.
-
•
Conversion originates from the Latin word meaning to transform or change, which is broader than just sales or profit.
-
•
Traditional linear product development processes miss the complex, iterative nature of real-world systems.
-
•
Systems thinking offers a more accurate way to understand and manage design experiments within interconnected environments.
-
•
A rigorous conversion design process includes seven phases: understand, hypothesize, prioritize, create, test, analyze, and decide.
-
•
Experiments grounded in well-documented hypotheses based on research have higher success rates than guesses.
-
•
Randomized 50/50 AB testing is the gold standard for isolating the true effect of design changes by evenly distributing confounds.
-
•
Experimentation buckets—product foundations, content/motivation, accessibility/usability, and bug fixes—help prioritize work effectively.
-
•
Ethical considerations and guardrail metrics are crucial to ensure changes benefit all stakeholders sustainably and without manipulation.
Notable Quotes
"Conversion means change, not just sales or profit."
"Design is the rendering of intent — bringing ideas into form that solve the problem."
"Decades worth of agricultural experimental data was garbage because of poor experimental design."
"Most product teams stay on the bottom rungs of evidence, relying on opinions or observational data instead of randomized trials."
"You can never purely test an idea, only the implementation of the idea."
"Randomization is magic — it evenly distributes confounds so the observed effect is caused by your change."
"Not all changes create value; some do nothing or even make things worse."
"You have to think critically about how a change impacts all stakeholders, not just the main business metric."
"Ethics evolve faster than laws; just because something is legal doesn’t make it ethical."
"If an experiment I design made the front page news tomorrow, how would I feel about it?"
Or choose a question:
More Videos
"Enterprise UX is about delivering strong experiences in an enterprise setting, which ain’t easy."
Louis RosenfeldWelcome / Housekeeping
June 6, 2023
"When Trisha said we are fearless, I disagree. I'm totally fearful."
John TaschekMaking People the X-Factor in the Enterprise
June 15, 2018
"Small companies like Descartes Labs built supercomputers entirely in AWS with no physical servers, showing a profound shift in how computing power is accessed."
Hugh DubberlyProblems with Problems: Reconsidering the Frame of Designing as Problem-Solving
June 19, 2019
"Writing a book is awful in terms of time, sweat, and time away from your loved ones, but it’s an amazing gift to dig deep into something you care about."
Louis RosenfeldCoffee with Lou: Should You Write a (UX) Book?
March 7, 2024
"Position your discovery work as de-risking investments rather than just fuel for innovation or empathy building."
Mike OrenWhy Pharmaceutical's Research Model Should Replace Design Thinking
March 28, 2023
"Empathy isn't just kindness, it's the lens through which we see users' true motivations."
Prayag Narula Hannah HudsonEmpowering Designers to do Good Research
March 11, 2022
"We wanted to create personality in interfaces without pretending they are human."
Josh Clark Veronika KindredSentient Scenes and Radically Adaptive Experiences
June 11, 2025
"To have higher impact, see the entire cross-functional team as your team, not silos."
Laurent ChristophScale the impact of DesignOps in 3D: Diligence, Decision, Discipline
September 17, 2025
"Enterprise UX is still nascent—businesses worldwide are just beginning to figure out where UX fits."
Steve Portigal Chris Chapo Kelly Goto Christian RohrerDiscussion
May 13, 2015
