Testing can be frustrating at times.
You have set objectives and reasonable expectations that your new treatment design will outperform the current champion.
And then it happens …
Your treatments are crushed by the control. Nothing seems to work. After a few test cycles of consistent underperformance, it starts to feel easier to just throw in the towel and call it quits than to weather another decrease in conversion.
Or … instead … it may be time to consider a radical redesign test approach.
Today’s MarketingExperiments blog post will share two common reasons to consider this approach and help you assess your testing efforts.
What does “going radical” mean exactly?
Now before I go any further, let’s get clear on what I mean by a radical redesign test approach.
- A radical redesign is a test approach in which a test variation that contains multiple variables (often unrelated) is manipulated in an unstructured manner.
In short, it’s a big shakeup on a test variation that equates to a roll of the dice.
And while you still may be able to isolate some common denominators between the radical redesign and the control, consider a radical redesign as an approach that strategically neglects experimental method best practices (isolation of variables, etc.).
Because of this, radical redesigns are often regarded as a last ditch effort approach (or a “Hail Mary”).
So, with all of that said, here are two common potential reasons to go radical we often encounter in test planning with our Research Partners …
Reason #1. Nothing else seems to work! (Or, “I can’t move the needle!”)
If you find yourself running multiple single-factorial and variable cluster tests to no avail, then maybe it’s time to go back to the drawing board and create a new radical treatment that seeks to rejuvenate the testing process and offer a new baseline for subsequent incremental tests.
Reason #2. Risk is not a concern for you (or your boss)
If you’re looking to make an impact and aren’t currently too worried about the potential for loss, then radical redesigns are often an exciting test approach with high potential for large impacts.
Sure, it’s a roll of the dice as I mentioned earlier, but the potential learnings you can gain from having a window of consequence-free testing is an opportunity for reward that is few and far between.
Ready to jump in?
Great, here are a few resources to get you started …
Homepage Optimization: Radical redesign ideas for multivariable testing
Homepage Optimization: How sharing ideas can lead to more diverse radical redesigns
