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It Takes a Testing Village

Thursday, 4 December 2008 @ 10:17, by Lily Chiu

Testing is inherently collaborative. It feeds off the behaviors of your visitors, but it also requires coordination among multiple groups for successful execution, including marketing, creative, and development. Those who begin testing for the first time can truly benefit from the experiences of those who went before them. So it begs the question - why isn’t there more collaboration going on out there?

I could hypothesize that it’s because testing is still a competitive advantage at this point. I certainly have some clients who feel this way and are very protective of their test designs and results. But I believe they’re in the minority.

The best conversation I’ve read about testing in the last year took place in Avinash Kaushik’s blog comments recently. And while I love all the responses the post stirred up, I can’t help thinking that there’s got to be a better place to keep the conversation going.

Toward that end, I’ve created a group focused on web optimization where I’m hoping a lot more collaboration will take place. This is a group for marketers interested in or currently testing and optimizing their sites today, regardless of platform or vendor. I invite companies, agencies, and vendors to join the conversation.

I’ll most likely be creating discussions there around best practices and adding a lot of the questions I commonly get around testing. Even though it’s fun to blog here, I get a little lonely banging around on my laptop alone. I’d much rather get more feedback from those of you on the front line and I’m hoping we can all find ways to help each other as the testing community continues to grow.

I encourage anybody interested in testing and optimization to join the group today and participate! Participation is key.

Group: http://groups.google.com/group/weboptimization

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  1. Avinash Kaushik2008/12/4 @ 3:45 pm

    Thanks for taking the initiative Lily!

    I am a member of the group already and I strongly encourage people to follow your call to action and join.

    Let’s share, learn and even kvetch. : )

    -Avinash.
  2. Chris Goward2008/12/4 @ 9:16 pm

    Great initiative, Lily.

    There are also Conversion Optimization groups with active discussions already on LinkedIn.

    B2B Conversion Optimization Network:
    http://www.linkedin.com/e/gis/142091

    B2C Conversion Optimization Network:
    http://www.linkedin.com/e/gis/147227

    Look forward to seeing the discussion develop on your group too.

    Cheers,
    Chris
  3. Dan Mooney2008/12/5 @ 11:37 am

    Thanks for starting this group Lily. I am trying to introduce testing at my organization. I am still at the point of getting buy-in. Anyone in NY and interested in meeting up to share ideas on how to create a culture of optimization? I’m sure it’s a long process but well worth it!
  4. John Hossack2008/12/5 @ 12:17 pm

    Lily - Great plan/idea

    I have joined the group as well and look forward to participating in the discussions. I will encourage others to join as well.

    John
  5. Lily Chiu2008/12/5 @ 5:43 pm

    Avinash, Chris, Dan, John - Thanks for the enthusiastic support!

    Dan - I love the idea of getting some meet-ups organized. I’ll look into whether we can get somebody to sponsor the liquid courage :)