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
"Using ChatGPT strategically increased my visibility and invited me into more strategic product meetings within my company."
Fisayo Osilaja[Demo] The AI edge: From researcher to strategist
June 4, 2024
"Managers need to audit the feedback their team receives, not just accept it at face value."
Theresa Slate Erin RobertsonWhy Changing Hearts & Minds Doesn’t Work When Promoting DE&I Efforts, but Checklists Do
October 4, 2023
"Modernizing legacy platforms while maintaining a cohesive UX is a major challenge enterprises face."
Uday GajendarTheme 1: Introduction
June 9, 2021
"There must be time to learn a community's history with government and time to build relationships to do this work well."
Ashley Cortez Devika Menon Nidhi Singh Rathore Danita J. Reese Mari NakanoShifting Toward Community-Led Innovation in Local Government
December 8, 2021
"Helper texts appear when hovering on unfamiliar features, explaining what buttons or controls do."
Rittika BasuAge and Interfaces: Equipping Older Adults with Technological Tools
February 23, 2023
"A relationship cycles through connection, disconnection, and repair, just like breathing has an inhale and an exhale."
Alla WeinbergCross-Functional Relationship Design
December 6, 2022
"Technology that includes everyone, especially those from vulnerable populations, ensures that what gets built will work for everyone."
Marisa BernsteinIt Takes GRIT: Lessons from the Small, but Mighty World of Civic Usability Testing
December 9, 2021
"Good UX and good design need not only to make a comeback but lead the way in this era of AI."
Ovetta SampsonManaging the Human Engagement Risks of AI
June 10, 2025
"Afrofuturism breaks down and distorts the heretical notions of objectivity and disciplines haunted by coloniality."
Florence OkoyeAfroFuturism and UX Research
March 27, 2023
