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Get Simon's framework for scaling experimentation across product teams in this month's newsletter: ⁠https://increaseconversionrate.substack.com/⁠ in this episode… Simon Born is head of analytics and experimentation at Kaufland — Europe's fastest growing marketplace. he's been there six years, executed over 1,500 experiments himself, and right now has 80 experiments running simultaneously. he didn't build this from zero — but he scaled it to something most companies can only dream of. it's about: → how to go from 2 experiments in parallel to 80 running at the same time → the C-level move that got every team to start experimenting (without forcing it) → why trustworthiness is the most underrated metric in any experimentation program → build vs. buy: the tooling decision that shapes everything

Get Stuart's framework for building an experimentation process from scratch in this month's newsletter: ⁠https://increaseconversionrate.substack.com/⁠ in this episode… Stuart Clare is the senior manager of digital trading, optimization, and personalization at the AA — one of the UK's most iconic brands. he's spent four years building an experimentation program from scratch, across five different product journeys, with a team of four. calm under pressure, process-obsessed, and still checking dashboards first thing every morning, just like he did when he was A/B testing email subject lines. it's about: → how to build an experimentation program from nothing — and get leadership to fund it → the loss prevention argument that makes any business case impossible to ignore → why a 25% win rate is healthy (and why chasing a higher one is actually dangerous) → app testing: why it's a completely different beast and what nobody tells you about it → the 1 thing that has stayed consistent across every company, every product, every journey

Daniël Granja Baltazar⁠ is a CRO Specialist at one of the Netherlands' biggest telecoms VodafoneZiggo, and proving that CRO goes way beyond A/B testing. If you enjoy learning about these topics, follow our newsletter to get all the frameworks and insights: ⁠https://increaseconversionrate.substack.com/⁠ in this episode… → what a 300+ experiments per year experimentation program looks like → why B2B experimentation can't just copy B2C playbooks → the MVP mindset: stop falling in love with solutions, start defining the problem → how qualitative research fills the gap when traffic is too low to test → using sales knowledge to rewrite product pages (and 10x your leads) → building an AI-powered experiment library so no learning ever gets lost Find Daniël on Linkedin: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/dgbaltazar/

Gabriel Marçal⁠ is a growth PM at AIOS Medical, and one of the quietest, sharpest minds in experimentation. Solving bigger problems than just running A/B tests for checkouts. follow our newsletter to learn all his frameworks and insights: ⁠⁠https://increaseconversionrate.substack.com/⁠⁠ in this episode… from his early days at a CRO agency in Brazil to running experiments on sales call scripts, physical medication boxes, and mobile apps, Gabriel refuses to stay in a box. it's about: → why your website isn't the only surface worth testing (and what to do when you're blocked) → how a lean 2-person team scaled to 10x growth without scaling headcount → the no-show rate problem: how experimenting with sales reminders moved the needle from 70% to 80%+ → subscriptions as a retention game-changer — and why 90%+ adoption doesn't happen by accident → Bayesian vs. frequentist? the answer that will surprise you Find Gabriel on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gabmarcal/

Get David's prioritization framework in this month's newsletter: ⁠https://increaseconversionrate.substack.com/⁠ David Swinstead spent 10 years inside the Booking.com bubble, and came out with some of the sharpest, most contrarian takes in the experimentation space. in this episode… he is now running experimentation programs at e-clerks, and doing stand-up comedy on the side, he treats both the same way: test everything, surrender to the data, and never assume you know the answer. it's about: → the "no-brainer" test on his first day at Booking.com that completely tanked → why PIE, ICE, RICE and every off-the-shelf framework is setting your team up to fail→ the 5-criteria prioritization framework he's been refining for 15+ years→ 1 pixel. 1 underline. and why everything on your site can make a difference→ CRO is easy, people are hard. how to actually build a culture that lasts Find David on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-swinstead-09267030/

Proven at brands like Kia, Montblanc, Blinkist, and Blacklane, Ioana’s framework shows how to implement experimentation that actually scales. Find it in this month’s newsletter: ⁠https://increaseconversionrate.substack.com/⁠ in this episode... Ioana has built experimentation programs across industries (from automotive to luxury to tech) and she’s not just running tests, she’s building systems that scale learning. currently working as a product growth consultant at Blinkist, she turns experimentation into a true growth engine. this conversation isn’t about surface-level A/B tests. it’s about: → the 5-step framework to build an experimentation program from scratch→ why “time to learn” beats perfection in high-performing teams→ how to avoid false positives that can cost companies millions→ why common “best practices” in CRO often fail in reality→ using AI to generate hypotheses and accelerate experimentation Find Ioana & her cohort for women on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ioanaiordache/

How do you pitch 50 experiments a month? ...by making them impossible to refuse. Steal Grace Miller’s framework for "tiny loss" proposals that guarantee a "Yes" from even the most risk-averse clients, it's in this month's newsletter: https://increaseconversionrate.substack.com/ in this episode… Grace Miller is building one of the most advanced experimentation cultures in media. she doesn’t just run tests; she turns entire teams into experimenters. as head of experimentation and failure at Flight Story, the company behind Diary of a CEO, she’s scaling experimentation across 15+ teams, from thumbnails to full customer journeys. it’s about: how to build a culture where everyone runs experiments (not just one team)“kill the guesswork”: using data to drive decisions across the entire businesswhy failure, rewards, and rituals (like experimenter of the week) accelerate growthhow to prioritize experiments that actually impact company KPIsscaling learnings across brands, platforms, and audiences without forcing what doesn’t fit Find Grace on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/grace-miller-linked-in/

If you enjoy learning about these topics, follow our newsletter to get all the frameworks and insights: https://increaseconversionrate.substack.com/ in this episode… Talia Wolf has been shaping the CRO industry since its earliest days. she doesn’t just run experiments; she decodes how people make decisions. as the creator of the emotional targeting framework, she’s helped companies move beyond surface-level optimization and into truly understanding what drives conversions: human behavior. it’s about: → why conversions are decisions, and how to reverse engineer them → emotional targeting: understanding pains, desires, and real customer motivations → how to turn customer research into high-impact experiment → creating emotional resonance by meeting users where they already are → getting buy-in: treating stakeholders like customers Find Talia on Linkedin: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/taliagw

get Luiza's playbook in our newsletter: https://increaseconversionrate.substack.com/ apply to work with us: https://the-initial.com/ in this episode... Luiza de Lange has taken companies from zero to over 100 experiments a year. she doesn't just run tests; she builds engines. currently leading experimentation at LeoVegas, she’s an award-winning practitioner who knows exactly where the "handshakes" fail in a growing business. this conversation isn’t about just tweaking button colors. it’s about: → how to move from "gut feeling" releases to validating every piece of code → why high velocity is actually the best way to audit your technical infrastructure → the "avoided loss" metric: how to prove you saved the company millions by not shipping → why "quantity improves quality" in the early stages of a culture shift → clarifying the raci: who is actually responsible for the hypothesis sign-off? Find Luiza on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/luizadelange/

Maarten van Pijpen spent 15 years at Booking.com. a place where experimentation wasn’t a project.it was the culture. now he’s chief growth officer at Unravel.a travel app that feels like TikTok,but lets you book instantly. in his first 35 days, he:– chose an experimentation tool– lined up 10 experiments– started building a data foundation but this conversation isn’t about tooling. it’s about: → how to move from top-down founder energy to bottom-up ownership → why shipping fast without tracking is dangerous → how a €1M mistake didn’t kill his career(but actually strengthened it) → why failures were celebrated at Booking → how to scale leadership so you’re not the bottleneck we talk about culture.trust.empowerment.and what it really takes to build a data-driven company —without killing speed. if you care about experimentation, growth, or leading teams in scale-ups and how all of these dynamics work, this podcast is for you.

the wrong Culture inside a company, kills even the best specialists. this is what Ruben de Boer, 15+ years in Experimentation, has noticed again and again: we need to create the right environment for CRO & Experimentation to flourish. not by pushing CRO but by bringing it to people and teams his course on Udemy has 25000+ students and is very much about the basics of CRO and Experimentation, but these days Ruben teaches how to make Experimentation mátter to the business, and to leadership follow him on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rgdeboer/?originalSubdomain=nl or take one of his Udemy courses: https://www.udemy.com/user/rubendeboer/

we unpack one of the fastest built experimentation engines i've seen!! In this episode, I sit down with Kameron Tanseli (Growth Engineering) and Rosie Hoggmascall (Growth & Product) from Fyxer.ai and we retrace the steps of building a 500+ /year experimentation program. We go deep into: Why their first onboarding experiments actually made things worseThe tooling shift from PostHog to GrowthBook (and why it mattered)How decentralized ownership (no PM, no heavy process) unlocked serious speedWhy every engineer acts like a founderHow Slack transparency builds experimentation cultureUsing AI agents to automate experiment reporting, analysis, and cleanupWhat “time to value” really means in an AI productThe emotional side of onboarding (“inbox shock”) and how it impacts retentionHow to prioritize when you’re scaling from 5 → 70+ peopleWe also explore: ➤ The difference between growth and product prioritization➤ How to surface insights across support, sales, and product➤ What’s still impossible to automate in experimentation➤ The tracking challenges of building inside Gmail and Outlook and of other AI tools

as a Behavioral Psychologist, dr. Florien Cramwinckel has helped the CRO and Experimentation world increase sales for S*x Toys, Children's playhouses ánd Fintech. Florien shares how CRO, experimentation, finance, sex, and play are related and can how to improve their business, society, and people's lives. she shares what she knows about "Pleasure Shoppers", and how they differ from Purpose Shoppers. How sextoys are connected to equality, safety, and communication. ...we talk about that borrowing money is so frictionless, ...why investing scares us, and how we should revert that effect and what to do if you've made an ethical mistake (in the case of Lucia placing fake reviews on a webshop)... 😱 follow Florien and learn from research in her newsletter: https://behavioraltimes.com/ you can find the dissertation she speaks about here: https://floriencramwinckel.nl/the-social-dynamics-of-morality/

in this episode, Lea Mattern shares hard-won tactics for driving experimentation adoption inside organizations. Based on her experience at Condor Airlines and German brands she worked with at Konversionskraft, we break down what actually works when you work at a Center of Excellence trying to increase experimentation adoption. 4 practical guidelines we cover: do internal marketing ('yes, be annoying, lol');make experimentation low-effort (bring or lend your own developer);talk to POs about what they need and how you can help them with experimentation;Use designers as Trojan horses: they already have the ideas, you just need to teach them experimentation; -- do this with empathy, and adoption stops being a battle. 👑. Follow Lea Mattern on Linkedin. this podcast was brought to you by The Initial. we help organizations install in-house experimentation programs and teach CRO agencies how to do this successfully. For the love of experimentation.

In this episode, Alisa Antypova (ex-Preply & ADC Consulting) opens the door to her world of experimentation. She talks about her start in data science, building Preply’s experimentation platform from the ground up, and how decisions become sharper when you test instead of guess. We explore airlines, marketplaces, and other complex systems where a single decision can create wide ripple effects. We talk about holdouts, the quiet truth tellers, and the risk of scaling tests that don’t really matter. Alisa shares the mistakes she’s seen, the traps teams often fall into, and why understanding what doesn’t work may be one of the most underrated skills in experimentation. Follow Alisa on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alisa-antypova/ Article she referenced on airlines and experimentation: https://adc-consulting.com/cases/how-latam-airlines-embraced-business-experimentation-for-revenue-management/