Fritz O’Connor, former VP of Marketing at Ironman 4×4 America, exemplifies this approach. With over two decades of experience spanning manufacturing, sales, and marketing leadership, Fritz has developed a methodology for building high-performing organizations that deliver results consistently, even in challenging circumstances.

A marketing leader built for manufacturing

Fritz’s career journey reads like a masterclass in understanding customers across different industries. Starting in the printing and paper industry, he cut his teeth in structured sales training programs that taught him the fundamentals of professional sales and business operations.

“I’ve spent my entire career in sales and marketing roles. Almost exclusively in the manufacturing sector for companies that make stuff,” Fritz explains. This foundation in manufacturing would prove invaluable throughout his career, giving him deep insight into the complexity of bringing physical products to market.

His two-decade tenure at GE further refined his skills across diverse business environments. “We always used to say we can work in any industry, anywhere in the world, and still get paid by the same company,” he recalls. This experience working across plastics, appliances, and GE Corporate gave him a unique perspective on how great companies operate at scale.

But it was during his time at GE Corporate that Fritz discovered what would become his career-defining framework: differential value proposition (DVP). Working in a marketing consulting role with virtually every business in GE’s global portfolio, he helped launch this customer-centric approach to messaging and positioning throughout the organization.

This systematic approach to understanding and serving customers became foundational to Fritz’s ongoing success.

Implementing systems and frameworks that take teams from features to solutions

Originally coined by the founder of Valkre Solutions, Jerry Alderman, the DVP framework transforms how companies think about customer messaging and competitive positioning. Fritz became a master at implementing this methodology across diverse organizations.

“What are you offering? Be it a product or service that is better than the customer’s next best alternative,” Fritz explains. This might seem simple, but the implications are profound. Rather than competing on features or price, DVP focuses on solving customer problems in ways that competitors simply cannot match.

The challenge, as Fritz learned during his GE implementation, is that DVP represents a fundamental shift in thinking. "Every business, product, or service has a value proposition, but not every value proposition is differential. So many companies have the same value proposition. The white space is that differential part."

"It's about switching thinking from a feature to a benefit. For example, a blue appliance is not a differential value proposition. It's a feature."

Fritz teaches teams to make this shift by leading with problems and solutions.

"It's how it makes the consumer or customer's life better, how it solves that problem. You have to identify what the problem is. You have to articulate how you can fix that problem in a different way, better than anybody else."

This shift from features to solutions requires teams to understand their customers' actual problems, not just their stated needs.

For leaders, this translates directly into more effective product messaging, clearer value propositions, and ultimately, higher conversion rates.

Overcoming the "this is how we've always done it" challenge

One of Fritz's biggest career wins (and ongoing challenges) centers around implementing the Differential Value Proposition (DVP) methodology across organizations. The implementation at GE became both a success story and a learning experience in change management.

"As you can imagine, anytime you try and launch a new process in a company the size of GE, you can be met with resistance. Especially when you're coming out of corporate."

This resistance taught Fritz a crucial lesson about implementing change: "I don't view that as a challenge or a stumbling block, but as a fantastic and wonderful opportunity because when you flip those people, they become your biggest proponents."

His approach centers on listening first, then demonstrating value in the stakeholder's own language. "It's a listening journey. You've gotta understand what the challenges are that of the people with whom you're working, whether it's an external customer or an internal customer."

"Proactively listen and walk in the shoes of the people I'm working with. When I'm trying to introduce something as significant as DVP or other business tools."

This listening approach helps identify the real challenges and resistance points, making it possible to address them effectively.

The foundation: accountability, responsibility, and challenge

But having the right frameworks isn't enough. Fritz learned that execution depends on creating the right team culture. He is quick to credit his teams as the backbone of his successful projects, and one of the ways he supports them is with clear organizational principles.

"I have a few underlying business principles that I've gained along the way that are the foundational threads for me," Fritz explains. "One is, any team I work with or works for me, my job is to make them as successful as possible."

This people-first approach manifests through three guiding principles:

• Accountability: Holding yourself and your team responsible for deliverables and outcomes
• Responsibility: Taking ownership of significant business challenges
• Challenge: Embracing difficult problems that create meaningful business impact

"The way I do that is through three guiding principles, which are accountability, responsibility, and challenge," Fritz notes. "I want to be entrusted with significant responsibility that is helping to solve a significant business challenge."

These principles translate into a simple but powerful operational mantra: deliver on time, complete with excellence.

"I know those all sound like buzzwords, but they're not meant to be. And we don't treat them as such. We treat them as very simple guiding principles to keep us focused."

Putting it all together at Ironman 4x4

When Fritz joined Ironman 4x4 America, he found the perfect opportunity to apply all of these frameworks.

Ironman 4x4 is a global company that sells off-road parts and accessories for 4x4 vehicles (lift kits, suspension parts, bumpers, etc.). They have been around since the 1950s, but were new to the United States, so Fritz had the opportunity to find new ways to market their complex "fitment" products, or parts that must work with specific vehicle makes and models. This complexity creates both technical and marketing challenges that Fritz's team had to solve systematically.

His sales background gave him an invaluable perspective on marketing effectiveness. "If you spend any time in sales, that means you're around customers, whether those are B2B or B2C customers. And you learn what's important to them."

This customer proximity taught him the critical principle of "show me, don't tell me." Rather than relying on feature lists or industry awards, effective marketing demonstrates value through customer experiences and outcomes.

"We always, in both sales and marketing, it's easy to get into the trap of just talking, talking, talking, describing stuff, talking about features and benefits. Talking about the industry's best. Nobody cares about your industry. They care about how your product or service is going to impact them."

The key to marketing complex products, Fritz knew, is understanding how customers think about their problems. Rather than leading with technical specifications, the focus should be on the customer's end goal and the emotional drivers behind their purchase decisions.

Fritz emphasizes the importance of demonstrating value rather than just describing it: "Really, visual storytelling, video storytelling, placing the customer in the scene so they understand your value. That ability comes from firsthand experience of seeing that happen in the sales arena."

A data-driven website replatforming

His POV shaped everything he was involved in at Ironman 4x4 America, from new product introduction processes to website optimization. Fritz implemented structured new product integration toll gates with clear deliverables and cross-functional accountability, ensuring every product launch was executed with precision across creative, digital, and channel marketing.

His customer-centered thinking and frameworks proved essential when his team tackled a complex website migration from an outdated platform to Shopify. The project was based on their understanding that a website change was necessary to better serve their audience and increase ecommerce sales.

Working with The Good on a DXO Program, the Ironman 4x4 team executed the redesign and replatforming with data-driven methodology. Rather than relying on opinions about what the site should look like, they embraced rapid prototyping and continuous testing.

"Any decision made without data is just an opinion, right?" Fritz notes, referencing CEO Luke Schnacke's philosophy.

"We try to be very data-driven, which is why it was so important for us to work with The Good, to get that data and share it with the team managing the website replatforming so that they were making data-driven decisions on design and functionality."

They didn’t wait for a “perfect website” to figure out what customers wanted. They tested and got feedback throughout the entire process to make sure they were developing the right ideas.

"I realized we were never going to do it perfectly," Fritz recalls. The team was getting bogged down in opinions about checkout processes, product customizers, and overall site design. "We could end up using half our development budget on building something that doesn't perform."

"Ultimately, we agreed to launch and then test the heck out of it. We didn't want to overburden the development pipeline with projects that don't have a financial impact."

This represents a fundamental shift in thinking. They went from trying to build the perfect site to building a testable foundation for continuous improvement.

The beauty of working with The Good in this situation, Fritz explains, was "the rapid prototyping, the test and learn. We could very quickly get feedback and iterate and then test and learn again."

Multiplying results through partnership

Leveraging an external partnership accelerated progress beyond what internal resources could achieve alone and held the team accountable to the frameworks and goals of staying user-centered and data-driven.

"If you're not an expert, I would recommend doing a website project with a company like The Good. It wasn't a cost, it was an investment," Fritz emphasizes. "And I think that Ironman 4x4 is the beneficiary of the investment that they made with The Good as they migrated over to Shopify and learned about what customers would like."

The partnership enabled intentional, studied testing with proper dependencies and measurable results tracking.

"That whole test and learn methodology is done in a very structured, deliberate way. Making changes in a waterfall, with the proper dependencies articulated, and then tracking the measurable benefits of changes, and then tweaking accordingly from there."

This approach breeds confidence because it's entirely data-driven, removing guesswork from critical business decisions.

Lessons for marketing and sales leaders

For marketing and sales leaders looking to build similar operational excellence, Fritz's approach provides a roadmap: start with principles, understand your customers deeply, make decisions based on data, and never underestimate the power of strategic partnerships to unlock potential.

Start with principles, not tactics

Before implementing any marketing or optimization program, establish clear guiding principles. Fritz's framework of accountability, responsibility, and challenge provided a foundation that influenced every decision and created lasting organizational change.

Understand your customer's next best alternative

Move beyond feature-benefit messaging to understand what your customers would do if your solution didn't exist. This "next best alternative" thinking is the foundation of truly differential value propositions.

Convert resistance through understanding

When facing organizational resistance to change, focus on understanding stakeholder concerns rather than pushing solutions. Meet people where they are and demonstrate value in their language.

Embrace data-driven decision making

Resist the temptation to rely on opinions or best practices. Instead, create structured testing methodologies that let customer behavior guide optimization decisions.

Invest in external partnerships strategically

Recognize when external expertise can accelerate progress. The right partnerships provide capabilities and perspectives that internal teams may not possess, ultimately delivering better results faster.

Starting an optimization journey

Fritz's approach to building and scaling teams, including Ironman 4x4's US marketing operations, demonstrates how principled leadership, customer-centric thinking, and strategic partnerships can create sustainable competitive advantages.

"There's no obstacle too big that can't be overcome with data and optimization, right?" Fritz states emphatically. "The whole point of being data-driven and optimizing is to get time back and to become more efficient."

His advice for other leaders facing similar challenges?

"Get to yes. Figure out how to do it. Don't say, this is why I can't do it. Say this is how I'm going to do it. Here are things I need to do in order to do it. Then hold yourself accountable. Make it happen. Do it."

The secret, according to Fritz, lies in celebrating small wins that compound over time: "Little steps, I always like to say, celebrate the little wins. Go after the little wins because they compound on one another and then all of a sudden you're gonna look back and go, holy mackerel, I can't believe I am where I am."

The secret is consistency: "And it starts with data as your foundation and optimization as the accelerator."

For ecommerce leaders looking to build similar operational excellence, Fritz's framework provides a proven template: establish clear principles, understand customer problems deeply, make data-driven decisions, and never underestimate the power of strategic partnerships to accelerate growth.

Ready to optimize your ecommerce experience with data-driven methodology? Learn more about The Good's Digital Experience Optimization Program and discover how strategic partnerships can unlock your growth potential.

The Good helps ecommerce brands like Ironman 4x4 optimize their digital experiences through research-backed testing and strategic partnerships. Our team combines deep technical expertise with proven methodologies to deliver measurable results for growing brands.

The post Fritz O’Connor Stays User-Centered and Leads with Data During Uncertain Times appeared first on The Good.

The default answer has been A/B testing. But while A/B testing remains the gold standard for high-stakes decisions, it’s not always the right tool for every design change. Many teams have fallen into the trap of either testing everything (creating bottlenecks and slowing innovation) or testing nothing (making changes based purely on intuition).

There’s a better way. By understanding when different validation* methods are most appropriate, SaaS teams can make faster, more confident design decisions while maintaining the rigor needed for their most critical changes.

*Note: We know validation is a bad word in the research community because it implies “proving you’re right,” but we feel it’s easier to read and more quickly comprehensible for those not in research disciplines. We’re using “validation” in this article, but “evaluation” or “confirm or disconfirm” would be more acute in other settings.

The real cost of a bad experimentation strategy

When teams lack a clear strategy for validating decisions, they create what researcher Jared Spool calls “Experience Rot” – the gradual deterioration of user experience quality from moving too slowly or focusing solely on economic outcomes rather than user needs.

The costs manifest in several ways:

• Opportunity cost: Market opportunities disappear while waiting for test results that may not even be necessary
• Resource waste: Development time gets tied up in prolonged testing initiatives for low-risk changes
• Analysis paralysis: Teams debate endlessly about what to test next instead of making decisions
• Competitive disadvantage: Competitors gain ground while you’re stuck in lengthy validation cycles

The key is matching your experimentation method to the decision you’re making, rather than forcing every design change through the same validation process.

A framework for design validation decisions

The path to better validation starts with two fundamental questions about any proposed design change:

1. Is this strategically important? Does this change significantly impact key business metrics or user experience?
2. What’s the potential risk? What happens if this change performs worse than expected?

Using these dimensions, you can map any design change into one of four validation approaches:

High Strategic Importance + Low Risk = Just ship it

If you can’t explain meaningful downsides to a design change but know it’s strategically important, you probably don’t need to validate it at all. These are your quick wins.

Examples for SaaS teams:

• Adding customer testimonials to your pricing page
• Improving mobile responsiveness
• Fixing broken links or outdated screenshots
• Adding clearer error messages in your product

Why this works: The upside is clear, the downside is minimal, and the time spent testing could be better invested elsewhere.

Low Strategic Importance = Deprioritize

Not every design change needs validation because not every change is worth making. Some modifications simply aren’t worth the time and resources, regardless of the validation method you might use.

Examples of low-impact changes:

• Minor color adjustments to non-critical elements
• Changing footer layouts
• Tweaking secondary page designs that get little traffic
• Adjusting spacing that doesn’t affect usability

When to reconsider: If data later shows these areas are creating friction, they can move up in priority.

High Strategic Importance + High Risk = Validation territory

This is where both A/B testing and rapid testing methods become valuable. The critical next decision becomes: can you reach statistical significance within an acceptable timeframe, and are you technically capable of running the experiment?

When to use A/B testing vs rapid testing

When to use A/B testing for design changes

A/B testing remains your best option for design changes when:

• You have sufficient traffic on the experience: Generally, you need 1,000+ visitors per week to the page being tested
• The change is reversible: You can easily switch back if the results are negative
• You need statistical confidence: Stakes are high enough to justify the time investment
• Technical capability exists: Your team can implement and track the test properly

Examples of SaaS use cases for A/B testing:

• Complete homepage redesigns
• Pricing page layouts and messaging
• Sign-up flow modifications
• Core product onboarding changes
• High-traffic landing page variations

When to use rapid testing for design changes

When A/B testing isn’t right due to traffic constraints, technical limitations, or time pressures, rapid testing provides a faster path to validation.

Rapid testing methods work particularly well for SaaS design validation because they can:

• Validate concepts before development: Test wireframes and mockups before building
• Narrow down options: Compare multiple design variations quickly
• Identify usability issues: Spot problems before they reach real users
• Provide qualitative insights: Understand the “why” behind user preferences

Examples of SaaS use cases for rapid testing:

• New feature naming and messaging
• Dashboard navigation restructuring
• Enterprise sales page designs (low traffic)
• Value proposition clarity testing
• Multi-option comparisons (6-8 variations)

The natural next question might be “which rapid testing method should I use?” Here is another decision tree framework to help answer that.

Incorporate your experimentation strategy into your design process

With a decision-making strategy for how and what to test, you’ll need to incorporate the strategy into your design process. The most successful SaaS teams don’t treat validation as an afterthought. They build it into their process from the beginning:

• During ideation: Use rapid testing to validate concepts and narrow options before detailed design work
• During design: Test wireframes and mockups to identify issues before development
• Before launch: Use A/B testing for high-stakes changes, rapid testing for others
• After launch: Continue testing iterations based on user feedback and performance data

The compounding benefits of a sound experimentation strategy

The goal isn’t to replace A/B testing with rapid methods or vice versa. Both have their place in a mature experimentation strategy. The key is understanding when each approach provides the most value for your specific situation and constraints.

Teams that master this balanced approach to validation see remarkable improvement, including:

• 50% better A/B test win rates (because rapid testing helps identify winning concepts)
• Faster time-to-market for design improvements
• More confident decision-making across the organization
• Better team morale from seeing results from their work more quickly

Perhaps most importantly, they avoid the extremes of either testing nothing (high risk) or testing everything (slow progress).

For SaaS teams serious about optimization, the question isn’t whether to validate design changes; it’s whether you’re using the right validation method for each decision.

Start by auditing your current design change process. Are you testing changes that should be implemented immediately? Are you implementing changes that should be tested? By aligning your validation approach with the strategic importance and risk level of each change, you can move faster without sacrificing confidence in your decisions.

And if you aren’t sure how to get started, our team can help.

The post How to Validate Website Design Changes: A Decision Framework appeared first on The Good.

According to McKinsey research, nearly 40% of consumers switch retailers to get better deals.

The challenge is no different from the classic showrooming problem that has plagued retailers for over a decade. Your customers discover your products, compare, and then disappear to buy from wholesalers, retailers, or resellers offering lower prices.

Because they can’t compete on price and leadership won’t budge on enforcing a MAP policy, many teams will simply throw their hands up and concede that 40% of price-sensitive shoppers will buy elsewhere.

Before you do that, I want to share an alternative POV. After working with hundreds of ecommerce brands to increase conversions, there are some tried and true strategies that will deliver in spite of MAP restrictions.

It starts with reframing the situation. Customer acquisition isn’t the problem. Customer preference is.

Instead of trying to win the price war, it’s time to focus on better customer experiences and compete in areas that can’t be replicated by the competition.

Solution 1: Make the experience worth the premium

The insight: 72% of consumers expect personalized experiences. Resellers can’t always deliver them.

While you can buy Glossier products at retailers like Ulta and Target, Glossier’s direct channels offer something those retailers can’t: a personalized skincare quiz that analyzes your skin type and concerns to curate 3-5 products specifically for your needs.

Their website shows personalized product recommendations based on your quiz results and browsing behavior, creating a tailored experience that feels custom-made.

This is the idea of selling the experience of being your customer and making it a seamless, one-of-a-kind experience to shop with you.

What this looks like in practice:

• Real-time AI personalization throughout the shopping experience
• Immersive product discovery via recommendations
• Clear articulation of your brand values and differentiators relevant to each unique user
• Brand storytelling that makes the purchase decision emotional instead of transactional

Solution 2: Create exclusivity that other sellers can’t touch

The insight: Exclusive SKUs and premium products can command 20-30% higher profit margins. While your resellers can sell your products, they can’t sell your brand or your relationship with customers.

Nike didn’t always beat resellers by matching prices. They created SNKRS app exclusives and limited colorways that resellers literally cannot obtain, contributing significantly to digital revenue and spiking DTC sales during the pandemic.

The strategy works because exclusivity creates urgency, and urgency often trumps price sensitivity.

What exclusive access looks like:

• Brand-only colorways and limited editions
• Early access windows 24-48 hours before reseller inventory
• Extended size runs available only through your channels
• Bundle combinations that resellers can’t replicate

Solution 3: Build loyalty programs that compete with discounting

The insight: Experience-based loyalty programs can make the shopping experience delightful without lowering prices.

84% of customers say they’re more likely to engage with a brand that offers a loyalty program, which is a game-changer for ecommerce companies without MAP policies.

For example, members of Sephora’s Beauty Insider program generate 80% of its total sales. While the program doesn’t guarantee products at the lowest price, it does offer exclusive access, personalized services, and community benefits that competitors cannot provide.

Loyalty programs that work:

• Tier-based structures with exclusive access benefits
• Community elements that create network effects
• Experiential rewards that resellers can’t match
• Personalized services that add genuine value

Solution 4: Optimize every conversion touchpoint

The insight: When you can’t compete on price, every visitor becomes precious. Optimizing the digital experience can offset price disadvantages.

Munchkin faced this exact challenge competing with retailers like Target and Walmart, where their products were sold. Working with The Good, they discovered that 70% of their traffic was mobile, but frustrated users were bouncing due to annoying pop-ups and poor navigation.

As David Embree from Munchkin put it, “If you’re paying to invite someone to your store, you don’t want them to walk in and immediately turn around to go somewhere else.”

By removing invasive popups, optimizing mobile navigation, and improving product findability, Munchkin decreased its bounce rate significantly and saw a lift in site-wide KPIs within six months.

What a powerful optimization strategy looks like:

• Comprehensive audit of user behavior and analytics data to identify conversion barriers
• Prioritized solutions that turn barriers into opportunities
• A/B testing and other experimentation methods to validate site improvements
• Device-specific optimization to customize the experience
• Navigation improvements to help users find specific products instead of browsing aimlessly
• Streamlined purchase paths that eliminate every source of friction
• Sophisticated abandoned cart recovery that addresses objections and provides additional value

Solution 5: Leverage tech to offer innovative shopping experiences

The insight: While resellers focus on price optimization, you can invest in technological advances that create immediate competitive advantages.

Warby Parker’s AR try-on experience through their site and mobile app allows customers to virtually test frames from home. The company’s annual report mentions that try-on features contribute to customer satisfaction, which is known to increase conversion rates.

Advanced technology requires significant investment that discount-focused resellers can’t justify for all the product types in their store. But it creates customer experiences that justify premium pricing and drive conversion improvements.

What technology differentiation looks like:

• AR try-on experiences
• Real-time personalization that updates offers based on customer activity
• Predictive analytics that anticipate customer needs/interests
• Social commerce

Solution 6: Lean on your brand story and values to connect with customers

The insight: Your resellers are selling your product, but they can’t sell your story.

Olipop transformed the crowded soda market by crafting a compelling narrative around gut health and nostalgia.

While Amazon can stock their prebiotic sodas, they can’t replicate the brand’s authentic story about making childhood favorites functional for adult wellness.

This storytelling creates emotional connections that justify premium pricing. Customers pay $2.50 for an Olipop versus $1 for a Coke because they’re buying into a healthier lifestyle narrative. They also have a subscription program that makes it easy for customers to restock every month.

Weaving the brand story into everything, from blog articles to stats on quality, helps customers build a direct relationship with your brand.

Content strategies that differentiate:

• Educational content that positions you as the industry expert
• User-generated content that creates social proof and community engagement
• Brand storytelling using elements like quality tiles to connect with customer values

Solution 7: Try product bundling to create value

The insight: Retailers may have lower prices on individual products, but you can create bundles to provide unreplicable value.

Harry’s grooming bundles products to make it easier for customers to find what they need for a smooth shave. Terms like “complete suite” and “essentials” create the perception of necessity while offering genuine convenience.

Smart product bundling makes price comparison impossible because customers can’t find identical packages elsewhere. The strategy works because bundles provide genuine convenience and a perception of value.

What strategic bundling looks like:

• Product combinations with complementary items, services, or accessories
• Value-added services like installation, setup assistance, or training included
• Exclusive package deals available only through your channel

Solution 8: Create unbeatable service experiences

The insight: Exceptional customer service can become a primary differentiator when price competition is off the table.

REI’s legendary approach exemplifies this strategy through its unmatched 100% satisfaction guarantee and return policy. Members can return any REI product at any time for any reason, with no questions asked, even if they’ve used it for years.

The policy extends beyond just returns to include their expert gear consultation services, where knowledgeable staff help customers choose the right equipment for their specific outdoor adventures, and their extensive educational programs, including classes on everything from rock climbing to bike maintenance.

Superior service creates defensible advantages because it requires investment in people and processes that discount-focused resellers can’t justify. The key is making the service itself a reason to choose you.

What service excellence looks like:

• Pre-sale consultation and personalized product selection guidance
• Extended warranties and satisfaction guarantees that competitors can’t match
• Omnichannel service consistency across online, phone, chat, and in-store
• Post-purchase support that turns customers into advocates

Understanding customer psychology and your unique users

Research shows that price is rarely the only factor in purchase decisions, even for price-sensitive customers. So, understanding the foundations of customer psychology and what matters is crucial when competing beyond price.

Some of the foundational elements of customer psychology are true no matter what you offer:

• Trust and Credibility: Customers often pay premium prices for retailers they trust. Build credibility through professional website design, clear policies, security certifications, and transparent business practices.
• Convenience and Time Savings: Many customers value convenience more than small price differences. Streamlined shopping experiences, fast shipping, and easy returns can justify MAP pricing.
• Risk Reduction: Customers often choose established retailers to reduce purchase risk. Comprehensive return policies, warranties, and a reputation for reliability can overcome price objections.

But there are other user behaviors that will be unique to your customers. Doing the research to understand what they want and need is the best way to deliver experiences that can compete when your company doesn’t have minimum advertised price policies in place.

Compete on value, not on price

MAP policy restrictions don’t have to be conversion killers. They can be conversion redirectors that allow you to compete differently.

While the wholesalers, retailers, and resellers race to the bottom on price, you can build sustainable differentiation through superior customer experience, expert service, and strategic value creation.

The ecommerce teams that thrive under MAP constraints understand a fundamental truth: customers don’t always buy from the cheapest option. They buy from the option that provides the most value. Your job is to ensure that option is always yours.

Ready to transform your MAP constraints into competitive advantages? The strategies outlined here require systematic implementation and continuous optimization. At The Good, we specialize in helping ecommerce brands optimize their conversion strategies when traditional price competition isn’t an option.

Let’s talk and see if there could be a good fit.

The post Why “We Can’t Compete Without MAP” Is the Wrong Problem to Solve appeared first on The Good.

The org chart isn’t what it used to be. As hierarchies flatten and teams are stretched thin, the traditional mentorship model (where wisdom flows from senior to junior) is shifting.

Maybe you find yourself as the most senior person in your function, surrounded by brilliant colleagues who work in completely different disciplines. Or maybe you’re managing a team while still figuring out your own career trajectory. The old playbook of “find a mentor who’s two levels above you” doesn’t apply when there are only three levels total.

We spoke with three product professionals navigating these workplace realities to gain a deeper understanding of what mentorship looks like today. From their perspective, mentorship isn’t disappearing. It just takes a little creativity to find these days.

Their stories show that finding mentorship requires intention and a willingness to look beyond your immediate team. And those who crack the code on developing in a community with a mentor, despite flat, resource-constrained environments, see higher job satisfaction and better retention.

A great mentor understands your why

If you’re lucky enough to have a manager with expertise in your discipline, managers can be a great source of mentorship, but according to Brittany Lang, UX Research Manager and proud mentor, growing talent can be an overlooked aspect of management. “ I think a lot of times there’s just not a lot of energy put into growing people,” says Brittany. “It’s extra effort, but it’s important if you wanna keep people.”

For Brittany, her approach to growing people starts with understanding their “why.”

“It's the most important thing to do as a research leader—to understand who my people are and what they want out of this job.”

Understanding her team members’ driving purpose helps her keep her team motivated to cross the finish line.

“If I'm asking them to do something and I can't give them an explanation of why or how it connects to those goals they have and their ‘why,’ then I'm losing them—and they're losing out. It's a lose-lose, and it should be a win-win situation.”

Beyond understanding their why, Brittany ensures that each team member has had opportunities to grow by keeping track of what they've accomplished and what they still need to do. It’s a part of how she keeps her team motivated. And the way she sees it, when her team is intrinsically motivated to do the work, it’s mutually beneficial to the company and the employee. “That's the dream,” she says.

Manager ≠ mentor

Not everyone is so lucky to have a manager like Brittany.

Sumita Paulson, UX Designer & Strategist, who has been both a mentor and a mentee throughout her 15-year career, says not all managers are mentors. “In a period of 15 years, I’ve only had two real mentors,” says Sumita.

Sumita notes that while it might be your manager's job to make sure you have work, “they don’t always make it their job to make sure it’s rewarding and tee you up for your next big success.” Whether due to the time pressures of their role or the lack of organizational structure to support it, managers don’t always see it as their job to tend to their employees’ careers.

“It’s not often that you find someone who aligns with your goals and wants to help you get there. A mentor is someone who is first amenable to and interested in helping you grow, then takes a proactive role.”

Sumita has found that managers who have taken a proactive approach understanding her goals and interests are the ones who created fertile ground for a mentor-mentee relationship. “Being interested in you as a person is the key thing.”

To spot a potential mentor, Sumita advises paying attention to who shows earnest interest in your goals.

“If they’re asking broader and more intentional questions beyond the job, that’s a sign that they want to get a better sense of who someone is as a person and what is interesting to them. They are starting to invest in your story.”

Mentorship can come from anywhere

Managers sometimes demonstrate a willingness to mentor. But where should you look for mentorship if your organization is relatively flat?

At one startup, Data Analyst and UX Researcher Anton Krotov was the sole research expert among a team of experts, without a research manager. “I was working with people outside of my field completely. So I was a senior person, and there was nobody else with a more senior expertise to ask advice from.”

Anton found himself as the sole researcher among a team of extremely talented and senior colleagues whom he needed to confidently serve—developers, product managers, designers, etc. That’s when he embarked on finding mentors outside of his company.

He leveraged outside mentors to help him upskill on new methodologies related to his role and to understand the ethical considerations of working with children.

“When I started to work with educational products oriented for very early school-aged kids, like primary school kids, I needed to do some in-person research, like focus groups. But I came with experience mostly in usability studies with adult people who articulate their wants and needs very differently. So what I needed to do was to find an anthropologist-slash-psychologist who was working with kids and could really explain to me how to do that right.”

Key to that relationship's success was working with a mentor who gave him homework, which Anton explained “could expand their value beyond our 30-minute time slot.” The value went beyond education and included accountability and reflection.

“That real value person-to-person mentorship gives to you is reinforcement. You come back to your mentor, bringing the results of your first try, second try, and you discuss that. That is the most valuable tool in upskilling.

I haven't found anything yet that would've beaten mentorship in terms of result, return on investment, confidence, and the feedback of my colleagues who saw me now more capable than before.”

Making mentorship work—in any org structure

Whether you're a manager looking to develop your team or an individual contributor seeking growth, mentorship might mean finding creative places to establish and develop relationships.

Mentorship doesn't have to look like the traditional model. It can be cross-functional, external, or even peer-to-peer. What matters is the intentionality behind the relationship and the commitment to growth on both sides.

Developing talent isn't just about individual growth; it's about organizational resilience. As Brittany noted, when team members are intrinsically motivated and growing in their roles, everyone wins.

The post What Mentorship Looks Like In Today’s Flat, Lean, And Growing Orgs appeared first on The Good.

You may have a gut-instinct answer to the question. You might even have ideas for how to tweak design, rewrite headlines, or add new features in an attempt to get users to stick around. But guesswork isn’t a strategy.

Expert researchers don’t guess. They use data, and one of their most powerful tools is the heatmap.

When used correctly, heatmaps reveal where users hesitate, what grabs their attention, and where they drop off—all critical insights for optimizing conversions. But the real magic isn’t simply generating a heatmap; it’s knowing how to read it.

In this guide, we’ll break down how to read a heatmap like an expert so you can stop guessing and start making informed, high-impact changes to your website.

Intro to heatmap analysis

Heatmap analysis shows real data points that represent actual human behavior. And when those behaviors form visibly discernable patterns, we use these patterns to form hypotheses about user wants and needs.

Heatmaps can help answer questions about user behavior and uncover sticking points in the customer journey.

Like footprints in the sand, heatmaps show us where users have been. And we use that information to infer and imply intent.

Types of heatmaps

At The Good, we primarily use three types of heatmaps: Click maps, movement maps, and scroll maps.

These types of heatmaps provide insights that answer critical UX and conversion questions, such as:

• Are users seeing my key content?
• What elements are they engaging with?
• Where are they paying the most attention?

By analyzing these patterns, we can pinpoint where users get stuck, what’s drawing their attention, and where they drop off—and take action to improve the experience.

Scroll Maps

Scroll maps visually depict typical scroll depth on any web page. Key insights you can glean from scroll maps:

• Where users drop off (high exit points may signal a false bottom)
• Whether important content is being seen
• If users are scanning or engaged

Tools typically use scales to show you the portion of users who scroll to different parts of your page. Red or “Hot” areas of your Heatmap indicate that all or almost all your users have seen this part of the page. As you move down the page, the colors will get “colder” according to the percentage of users who scroll down to that point.

The lines on the page below indicate where 25%, 50%, and 75% of users dropped off, meaning they left the page or clicked on something, therefore not scrolling further.

While shallow scrolling is not inherently negative, it may indicate lost user attention or that a page does not look scrollable.

The same goes for deeper scroll depths. It is not inherently positive or negative to see a deeper scroll depth. Depending on the surrounding context, deeper scroll depth may indicate that users are failing to find meaningful content higher on the page, and therefore go looking by scrolling down.

Movement Maps

Movement maps show where users have hovered their mouse on a page. They are valuable because they show us where the majority of user attention is focused. Movement maps can show:

• What content users are reading or skimming
• Where their attention is most concentrated
• Whether key information is being overlooked

Movement maps help us infer what content is most valuable to users during the decision-making process.

Reading movement maps is similar to reading eye-tracking heat maps. For many users, their mouse movement follows their gaze, so knowing where mouse movement occurs tells us what content users are reading or paying attention to.

Based on our experience, concentrated left-to-right movement over text generally indicates intentional reading, since many mouse movements tend to follow the user’s eyes.

In this example, we see side-to-side movement over FAQs, indicating users are reading each question to determine which one may reveal helpful information about the services being offered. We looked at movement clusters in the FAQs, which when paired with data about the most highly clicked FAQ items helped us determine what questions users needed answered to have the confidence to purchase services.

In contrast, up-and-down movement may indicate areas that users are simply skimming rather than intently reading. Take this example: seeing vertical movement patterns indicated to us that users may be scanning the resources available (rather than reading). User testers told us that the content did not look worthwhile, so those two bits of data together told us this area needed some fresh content and a redesign.

Click Maps

Click maps show us what elements users click on most commonly. Click maps can uncover insights including:

• What elements drive engagement (or get ignored)
• If users are clicking on non-clickable elements (indicating confusion)
• Which navigation links or CTAs attract the most interest

Hot spots, shown in red, have the highest concentration of clicks. Transparent blue spots represent a low density of clicks.

In the click map below, we see a list of “All Products” with one notable hot spot in the middle of the menu. What, you may wonder, is in the middle of the list that is drawing so many clicks?

The answer is in the name: Paints. Here we see an example of a company with a clear specialty and a large portion of their sales going to one category. Yet, when we saw this heatmap we realized they were making the user work hard to find these most popular products by burying them in the middle of the list.

18 Heatmap patterns to look out for

To get the most value out of heatmaps, researchers have to analyze how different heatmap elements interact, compare trends across pages, and validate findings with other data sources like session recordings or analytics.

In this section, we’ll walk through the most common heatmap patterns, what they look like, and what they reveal about user behavior so you can start making smarter, data-backed decisions.

The Spot Specific Pattern

Where it appears: Click map

What it looks like: Highly concentrated heat activity on an individual spot in a sea of text.

What it means: Users might have a specific interest related to a need. They could also be clicking on a non-clickable element within a paragraph or looking for information that is slightly buried within other text. It may be an indicator that you need to rearrange a menu or better highlight certain features of a product.

Gapped Patterns

Where it appears: Click map

What it looks like: In a list of items, there is one that gets no heat activity.

What it means: It usually means that a user doesn’t know what to expect if they were to click here, or they are simply disinterested.

Primacy vs Recency Pattern

Where it appears: Click map

What it looks like: Concentrated click activity on the first and last items in a list.

What it means: Typical of menus, users often engage most with the first and last item in any list. Named after the psychological phenomenon where users are best at recalling the first and last words in any list.

Filter Hot Spots

Where it appears: Click map

What it looks like: Concentrated clicks on certain areas of a filter, and a lack of clicks on other areas of a filter.

What it means: Users generally rely heavily on certain filters and less on others. Knowing what filters are helpful to users might tell us how we should rearrange filters or give us context for what users care about in their products.

Consistent Browsing Pattern

Where it appears: Click map

What it looks like: Strong click patterns across products on category pages.

What it means: This tells us that users are interested in a variety of products on the category page and are clicking on various product pages.

Spotted Browsing Pattern

Where it appears: Click map

What it looks like: Strong amount of clicks on only a few product images on category pages.

What it means: This tells us that users are most interested in specific products. These might be flagship products (as in this example).

Strong Pagination Pattern

Where it appears: Click map

What it looks like: Concentrated activity on the pagination with little activity on filters or product tiles.

What it means: Users might not have very intentional browsing behavior, and instead of engaging with product tiles and narrowing down their search, they are simply going from page to page to see all products.

Click Indecision

Where it appears: Movement map

What it looks like: Horizontal heat patterns found in the middle of two clickable elements, usually between 2 or more different elements positioned next to each other. Can be found on a menu navigation or even dual CTAs.

What it means: Users are hovering between clickable elements. They might be experiencing a bit of uncertainty in their browsing experience. They’re not sure where to click because both options are similar in nature or unclear.

F-Shaped Reading

Where it appears: Movement map

What it looks like: Concentrations of heat in the shape of an F on the page. The direction begins with the user tracing the page from top to bottom and then from left to right.

What it means: Users are assessing the content on the page but they are not necessarily reading it.

Source.

Commitment Reading

Where it appears: Movement map

What it looks like: Blocks of heat activity usually on content pages or chunks of text.

What it means: Users are high-intent and they’re learners. These patterns show strong interest in the information displayed and intentional reading.

Source.

Layer Cake Pattern

Where it appears: Movement map

What it looks like: Users read headlines but overlook the associated subtext.

What it means: They are interested in the content but are reviewing the page at a high level.

The downside of this pattern is that users could be missing content related to their needs or diminish the influence of the content’s intended purpose to promote a desired course of action.

Scrolling Pattern

Where it appears: Movement map

What it looks like: A vertical heat pattern that travels down the page. On low-traffic pages, this might be represented by dots that align in a vertical fashion, as with the example here.

What it means: This signifies that users are scrolling down the page, without necessarily reading the content. They might be looking for something that they are not finding, or the content might be arranged in a fashion that is best for scanning. If this is paired with truly little click engagement, we might assume that the content is not very valuable.

Truncated Scanning

Where it appears: Movement map

What it looks like: Users skip a consistently repeated word in a text.

What it means: Users are reading content faster, likely because the content is repetitive and it’s easy to recall the skipped word.

Dropdown Residue

Where it appears: Movement map

What it looks like: A spotted heat residue in a rectangular fashion positioned below the top navigation.

What it means: This is residual activity of users strongly considering items in the drop-down menu or some drop-down element on the page. Residue will be concentrated in the areas where users are actually scanning and considering the content.

Image Hover

Where it appears: Movement map

What it looks like: Heat activity around images on a page. Could be on a category page or rows of photos.

What it means: Imagery is dynamic–a secondary image shows when the users hover over the primary image. The user is hovering around the image to see the second photo.

Content Avoidance

Where it appears: Movement map

What it looks like: The inverse of the image-specific pattern, content avoidance happens when people explicitly avoid an area with their mouse, almost creating a frame.

What it means: This might mean that users perceive this as an ad and are intentionally avoiding it, or have “banner blindness” and simply don’t see the content as relevant to their visit.

False Bottom

Where it appears: Scroll map

What it looks like: On scroll maps, there is a high drop-off on the page (drop-off is above the halfway mark on the page).

What it means: Users might perceive that they’ve reached the end of the page. This is extremely common when email signups are in the middle of a page (see example right) and when there is a strong color contrast, full-bleed section early in the page. These things signal the footer is coming, so they often make users think they’ve seen everything they need to see.

Halted Pattern

Where it appears: Scroll map

What it looks like: Drop-off is right above the fold, and nearly no users scroll below it.

What it means: Either most users are finding something to click on above the fold, there is a high bounce/abandon rate, or there is a false bottom. It could also be some combination of the three.

What is the best tool for heat mapping?

Not all heatmaps are created equal. The best heat mapping tool is the one that provides clear, actionable insights without adding unnecessary complexity.

For most teams, Hotjar will be a great go-to solution. It’s lightweight, easy to set up, and provides a suite of heatmaps—including click maps, scroll maps, and movement maps—that help you understand user behavior at a glance.

Why Hotjar?

• Comprehensive Behavior Tracking: Hotjar captures how users interact with your site—where they click, how far they scroll, and what elements they hover over.
• Fast Insights, No Heavy Lifting: Unlike enterprise tools that require complex setup, Hotjar makes it easy to get started and see results quickly.
• Paired with Session Recordings: Heatmaps alone tell part of the story; Hotjar lets you connect heatmap insights to real visitor session recordings for deeper analysis.

While it’s our top pick, if Hotjar isn’t the right fit, another good option is Microsoft Clarity.

Turning heatmap data into actionable strategies

Reading a heatmap like an expert researcher isn’t just about spotting red and blue zones—it’s about understanding the “why” behind user behavior and knowing what to do next.

But if you don’t have the time or resources to build a research team, you don’t have to go it alone. At The Good, we specialize in turning heatmap data into clear, actionable strategies that drive real results.

Want to skip the learning curve and get expert insights now? Let’s talk.

The post How To Read A Heatmap Like An Expert Researcher: Patterns To Look Out For appeared first on The Good.

About This Episode:

Not all online businesses need the same amount of traffic. In this episode, Jon and Ryan discuss how consideration, target market, and budget impact traffic for both startups and industry leaders.

Check out the full episode to learn:

• What a traffic moat is, and why established brands want to create them.
• What startups should focus on when it comes to generating traffic.

If you have questions, ideas, or feedback to share, connect with us on LinkedIn. We’re Jon MacDonald and Ryan Garrow.

• Apple Podcasts
• Google Podcasts
• Spotify
• Castbox
• Castro
• Overcast
• Pocket Casts
• Stitcher
• Subscribe via RSS

Episode Transcript:

Announcer: [00:00:00] You’re listening to Drive and Convert, a podcast about helping online brands to build a better e-commerce growth engine with Jon MacDonald and Ryan Garrow.

Jon MacDonald: Hey, Ryan, I assume that our listeners are aware, but not all businesses online need the same traffic. So surprise, surprise. So much depends on consideration, target market budgets.

All right. So. If you’re selling a 35 watch band, your conversion paths are pretty likely to be short, but if you’re selling a 25,000 B2B server, or maybe even a SAS product of all things, we haven’t talked a lot about here, but I have a feeling we will do more. You most likely have some complicated paths to conversion.

And I think, you know, we really have not spent a whole lot of time tackling these issues. And I think there’s potentially a more unique [00:01:00] traffic source and pattern there that that we should discuss.

Ryan Garrow: I agree. And I think it seems logical that when you’re looking to drive traffic in a High consideration industry with high dollar value deals or lots of margin in those product sales.

It really still does, when you boil it all down, come a lot of times down to just budget, which in turn comes down to, were you already successful before you started spending money? or where you’re at now. Like it’s difficult unless you have an investor with really deep pockets willing to blow a bunch of money on the internet to hopefully win to be able to compete sometimes when you’ve got a large incumbent brand there.

Jon MacDonald: Yeah.

Ryan Garrow: I just got the call this morning actually with a company that’s launching into a B2B space. They’re only going to have a couple thousand dollars of budget and they’re competing against It’s the web stronts and the Grangers of the world with essentially the same products in their little small slice of the industry there.

I mean, I, I painted a pretty bleak picture for them. I was like, it’s going to be tough. Your competition is already spending six, [00:02:00] seven figures a month on Google capturing demand. You’re going to be priced out of the ad auctions in just a thousand dollars. It’s like. You know, a pea shooter against a tank to a degree.

Jon MacDonald: Yeah. Why even bother in those cases?

Ryan Garrow: Yeah. And I tell them most of the time, don’t, I was like, you can pay me and you know, I’d have no problem taking money, but you’re not going to be happy. So there’s probably better places to spend your money. You know, startups in these spaces have to get somewhat creative for their traffic and lead flow while larger businesses or industry leaders really have to focus on creating traffic moats around what they’re doing.

Jon MacDonald: Interesting. So. I’m not sure I’ve ever heard that term traffic moat before what what do you mean by that because I don’t even know how an industry leader would create one. What is that? What are we talking about here ?

Ryan Garrow: Before today? I don’t think I’ve ever heard of it. But I was sitting down creating notes.

I was like, how do you explain some of these strategies I would talk about? I’m like, I think of it as like, okay, you’ve got this castle, you know, And you’re, Oh, you’ve got, you can build a moat around it and it helps protect you. And we talk in business around, you know, how do you build moats or, you know, be in blue oceans and keep out the bloody [00:03:00] waters.

If you consider your traffic, your advantage on as a B2B large sales product or a SAS product, then you want to protect that. You don’t want to just make it easy to, to steal that traffic from you. That’s what I think you’re trying to accomplish in a perfect world. And you’re always going to have people trying to take it from you because they’re going to see your size.

They can estimate your profit. You know, we know a lot of what SAS margin products look like. You can see their traffic and do backup math and calculations and be like, Hey, I want some of that profit. To start creating this mode, you got to think through your search funnel and then at each layer, figure out kind of how you’re going to protect yourself.

What’s going to keep the startups from coming in? I usually start with Google Bing and say, okay, you’re capturing demand. And if it was me, I would almost do the opposite of what a lot of e com brands get advised to do. But I would say increase your bids, increase your CPA goals, meaning like be willing to pay more for a CPA than maybe what you can actually capture.

Okay. If you can get a CPA of, let’s say 80 on Google and Bing, [00:04:00] and I can handle 120, 130, I might go up there anyway. Just because it’s going to make it that much more difficult for a startup with less money than me to compete and I’m playing the long game.

Jon MacDonald: Well, it’s almost like that story you were just talking about, right?

In the sense that somebody new who’s entering that marketplace can’t possibly compete spending a couple grand when their competitors are spending tens of thousands.

Ryan Garrow: Google many times will set a minimum CPC in a lot of industries to help give you that moat to a degree. But like I might be bidding a hundred even though I know I can handle.

I can take it for 50 or do really well there just because I’m competitive and I want to win. And I want a monopoly if I can get it, but I want to keep them out. And I want to focus really hyper focus on quality score because that’s the area that small competitors can jump into these auctions and beat you.

You know, if you’ve got a very large Google ads account, that’s not getting a lot of attention in many areas, you may have three to five out of 10 scores. Meaning that if I’m a small competitor, I’m going to get hyper focused on that. I can get a [00:05:00] 10 out of 10 and outbid you for less money. You might be bidding 100, but I might be able to get that same click for only 30 because I’ve got a much better quality score.

Large brands can’t take their foot off the gas and allow for those creaks to come in. So you really do have to pay attention to those details. If I’m advising an aggressive business, you know, somebody like myself. I might say you need to find a way to get a second entity in that auction That you own and control not something that you you don’t break any rules by doing it, by the way It’s just you have to be very clean about it.

Jon MacDonald: Okay,

Ryan Garrow: you can’t have the same credit card on there You can’t have the same billing address You need to make sure google sees that second entity bidding in that auction as a Second entity as a competitor to you, even though the ladies may be flowing up to you at the end of the day So some of them might be that you create a best of list We had a client that did this in a much simpler industry He was selling t shirts based undershirts and he created this huge ecosystem where he became a like a t shirt guy And was like doing all of these reviews of undershirts funny [00:06:00] enough, he won every best of list.

He’s like, Oh, that’s got the best quality. It’s got the highest thread count. It’s all these things.

Jon MacDonald: This is the old mattress play. All the online mattress brands done this for years.

Ryan Garrow: Yes. And it, I think it gets overlooked in its simplicity. Like you’re just going to create this entity that you like, but it can bid because it’s Collecting review. And you might even set up, realistically, you might set up affiliates, affiliate links to your competitors.

Jon MacDonald: Why not make something off of it?

Ryan Garrow: Yeah. You send them traffic, you might as well at least make some money off it. Yeah. And so, but you’re gonna win most of the awards on there. So that could be one way to do it.

Sometimes you will acquire or create a reseller of your product so that you know, if you’re selling this piece of sass and this. Ryan’s, you know, store is going to be one of the resellers of that. I can own that. There’s nothing against that rule. It’s a separate business. Maybe my wife owns that and she’s the reseller on there, but it’s my, I’m controlling the budget goes in and the reseller gets some of the revenue share just like a normal one would.

And then sometimes in the B2B like online sales, you would buy [00:07:00] it. You can buy a competitor and

Jon MacDonald: Oh, that’s a good idea.

Ryan Garrow: control it that way. One of our clients, and we pulled this from Fossil Watches. Where I don’t know, 10 years ago, they, they owned the watch market in the U S I mean, they owned like the top 10 brands.

They made all the watches. They had a fossil. They had watch station. They had all of, I mean, they could, they basically came to us during certain periods of the year and said, we want to own watches, wallets, and belts for men. I’m like, well, what do you, what do you mean own it? We don’t want to see any competitors anywhere in the auction on text ads or shopping.

You have all of our properties. Go make that happen. Like, okay. So if you weren’t organic top three on any of those during holiday, you were not getting traffic for those. It was going to be painful competing with our team on that space. So it’s, it’s thinking big,

Jon MacDonald: interesting,

Ryan Garrow: but really focusing on some of those details within the space. Okay.

Jon MacDonald: So I think everyone right now knows that you’re super competitive. So this doesn’t surprise me, but I love that tactic. You know, it’s [00:08:00] taking something that is legit, Google lets you do it and using it towards your advantage. And I love the buying a small competitor up to be able to do that. I think that’s a great idea.

Okay. So I get that you can create this mode around demand capture and properties like Google and Bing, but so many SAS or software as a service clients that we work with at the good have massive amounts of traffic coming from sources like affiliates or LinkedIn is huge now. How do you put a moat around those?

Ryan Garrow: Well, of course, it’s usually, it’s usually not as simple as controlling Google and Bing because that’s a very direct spend a dollar, get this relationship. But again, I think as long as you’re thinking within the details and minutia of those areas of the traffic, I think you can find ways to really Corner the market and keep small competitors out, even big competitors sometimes depending, but like, for example, affiliates are big in the SAS space.

Many of the tech players in my space have affiliate programs and they’re, they’re nice, but they’re almost table stakes for playing. Like if you don’t have an affiliate program or a partner [00:09:00] program that pays me a rev share, it’s like, yeah, are you, are you even trying to a degree? If I were to create a moat in affiliates for a big SAS company, Or a large player in the B2B space.

I would want to create tiers that, you know, a small competitor just can’t play it. And so aggressive pricing is one thing. So if standard in your industry is 15 to 20 percent of the SAS revenue to a partner, go 30%, I mean, make it uncomfortable for a small company without much money to be like, how would we pay 30 percent or more?

If you’re smaller, oftentimes you have to overshoot the incumbent. to take that partner away. Aggressive pricing can be one thing. It doesn’t have to be an all the time thing, right? You could just be like, I know this guy over there or girl over there is starting to start up a competitor of mine. I’m going to make sure they don’t get off the ground.

Small competitors usually lack a few things, money, time, and clients. And so if they don’t have all of those that you have an abundance of, or at least more than they do, as an affiliate, you want to provide those things to your partners or your affiliates that you know your small competitors can’t do.

You’ve [00:10:00] got the clients they don’t, you can provide leads. For your partners, find a way to engage your clients. Find some needs that your partners that are sending you business will like, I mean, everybody in the partner space loves reciprocal lead flow.

Jon MacDonald: Yeah. Yeah. And I think that’s a key, right? It’s gotta be reciprocal, but 30 percent is intriguing.

Ryan Garrow: Yeah. I mean, so I have some competitors that will just do it for Revshare and that’s fine. You know, there’s many agency owners that will take, you know, 15, 20 grand a month in rev share from partners. That’s great because that’s going right to the owner’s bottom line or affording employees that maybe you’re trying to build up when you’re as big as LP 10, 15, 20 grand.

It really doesn’t. It’s not bad. We’re not going to turn it down. Don’t get me. Don’t hear me to say that.

Jon MacDonald: Shop in the bucket. I get it. Yeah.

Ryan Garrow: It’s a drop in the bucket for us. But so it’s when you can give leads that keeps me from saying, Hey, all things being equal and you’re giving me leads, guess who’s going to stay the predominant partner for us.

You know, there may, if you’ve got more cash, you could provide cash for a certain tiers that you hit. You know, we’re working with a partner right now to try to do some of that for some of our employees. Like, Hey, we’re going to do a set of incentive trip for some of the [00:11:00] lead flow that they’re going to be getting.

Well, that’s unique enough that a small competitor to them is not gonna be able to come to me and be like. Yeah, we’d like to, you know, give your employee a 100 gift card. Cute, not gonna turn it down, but at the day, they’re probably not gonna pay attention because they have this big cruise trip coming up with this partner.

Inviting them to events with your client. So if you’re already doing some events with your clients, where they’re just gonna be in the same spot. Invite a partner that you like, that you want to keep from going to a smaller competitor. Just getting them in the room with your clients is going to be valuable to them.

Again, if you’re inviting me to just meet with your clients because you’re there and you’re saying that Ryan’s valuable and logical position does good stuff.

Jon MacDonald: I mean, I feel like that’s the only time we see each other face to face anymore since COVID is like those events, right? Come see our clients. That’s an interesting one too.

Ryan Garrow: LinkedIn is tough because I feel like it’s been evolving a lot and it seems to be, it’s a pretty even playing field. Anybody can post anything they want. There’s no restrictions to being able to post a piece of content there. You don’t have to pay to play there. And so it is fairly [00:12:00] flat, democratic, even playing field space.

Most bigger businesses though will have a content team to help. And I think that’s the resource that becomes more valuable is if you have a solid content team regularly posting. The key is engaging thought leadership pieces. And this is going to take some work because there’s a lot of garbage on LinkedIn.

Like it’s just I don’t want to see another case study. I I don’t I just don’t care great You have a business you’ve probably done something good and you can spin the numbers most case studies when I get in them It’s even some of our partners I’ll go into the case and be like don’t you want to put this in front of your clients?

I’m, like no your case study is garbage because you one partner in particular talk about How they increase conversion rates. I can increase conversion rates. Like we talked about, like, not, and it wasn’t you, it wasn’t Jon, by the way, but it was like, I could just cut off your non brand traffic and conversion rate goes up.

So how can you tell me that making this little change just magically increased conversion rates across 5, 000 clients? Maybe, but you’ve got to give me some real data there and your case studies are fluffy. So,

Jon MacDonald: yeah, I think, you know, LinkedIn’s becoming more like, in some ways, like Reddit, where the community will come after [00:13:00] you in a way, they’ll call you out.

If you do things like that, and it used to be that you could post whatever you wanted to LinkedIn and everybody was kumbaya. Everyone was great with it. And, you know, high fives and likes and thumbs up everywhere. And I’m noticing as a lot of folks who were on Twitter left Twitter wanted something more business minded as Twitter has gotten away from business have really come on and said, you know, like, I love this, but you got to bring value.

And if you’re not bringing value, then I’m Or you’re trying to fake bringing that value, then I’m going to call you out on it. And I think that’s fair. And I love seeing that. And I think there’s a lot of ways to make LinkedIn work for brands. But you’re right. It’s tough because anyone can post anything.

And you are at the whim of the likes and follows, if you will, that are on there. And you got to deliver value. It’s the only way to do it.

Ryan Garrow: Yep, giving me a picture of you and partners at happy hour.

Jon MacDonald: [00:14:00] Like, yeah, this isn’t Facebook.

Ryan Garrow: I mean, no, it’s like that. There’s a time and place for that. And I get it. And you want to call them out, but it becomes the easy button.

I think it’d be like, I’m going to go to face facing and I tagged you and it’s great. And yes, you need to tag partners and give them some of that. Especially if you’re a leader in the space, your team does a phenomenal job at this. I mean, there’s so many times that we come across clients, we share, they’re like, yeah, Jon is everywhere.

He’s such a big deal. And I’m like, he is. Yes. But I also know that he’s got a great team behind him, you know, pushing that out there. Like it doesn’t just happen by accident. There’s a lot of intentionality with what your team does and how you’re repurposing content. You write books. To give yourself more things to talk about and do so.

I think Jon MacDonald is a great person to go if you’re trying to think about LinkedIn. And he does it from, yes, he’s a leader, but he does it with a very small team. So you can adopt Jon’s strategy as the market leader. But also maybe think about it too, as an incumbent, like you just have to be very intentional. So LinkedIn is somewhat challenging as the market leader because of that.

Announcer: You’re [00:15:00] listening to Drive and Convert, a podcast focused on e-commerce growth. Your hosts are Jon MacDonald, founder of the The Good, a conversion rate optimization agency that works with e-commerce brands to help convert more of their visitors into buyers.

And Ryan Garrow of Logical Position, a digital marketing agency offering pay-per-click management, search engine optimization, and website design services to brands of all sizes.

If you find this podcast helpful, please help us out by leaving a review on Apple Podcasts and sharing it with a friend or colleague. Thank you.

Jon MacDonald: I think it is, and I think too many people lean on the business instead of the individual, but LinkedIn. nobody follows businesses. They follow people on LinkedIn. And so you can’t just post from your company account and ask your team to like it. Not going to do anything. You really have to engage and be part of the community.

Similar to Reddit, as I mentioned, where you have to be part of the community. You can’t just pop in and promote yourself. Doesn’t work.

Ryan Garrow: Yeah, [00:16:00] I wouldn’t even go to those stories I have there with I was trying to solve some Amazon problems. I went in there and I could see people doing I’m like, Oh, this is Stay away from that part of Reddit.

Yeah. But yeah, another example to look at too is Barb Brewis from No Commerce. I think he does a great job of being really authentic on LinkedIn. Yeah. Historically, he’s really built up a good following, and so you can duplicate what he’s doing. And No Commerce, I would argue, is one of the, one of the market leaders in the post purchase survey space.

Yeah. So they’re trying to keep their selves insulated, and so the whole team has to be going. Like, if you don’t have, I’ll say this, if you’re a large entity, In the B2B, SaaS space, and you don’t have a LinkedIn strategy for your organization, I think you have a problem.

Jon MacDonald: Yeah.

Ryan Garrow: Because it’s not like your business needs to post. Again, like you said, nobody cares. But your C level VPs, directors all have something that they are strategically posting about. And you have to be willing, I think as a big company, to let your people become elevated. There’s a lot of leadership, I think, to get worried like, Oh, if they get too big for me, they’re going to demand more [00:17:00] pay, or they’re going to get recruited.

I’m like, well, anybody can recruit anybody on LinkedIn. I know who the best people in e com are across the board. It’s not a question. If you want to hire the best here, here, here. I know who it is. It’s, it’s more about, are you going to create some value and encourage them to be part of your company is how you should be thinking, not like afraid of them getting picked off because they’re being helped in their LinkedIn strategy.

Jon MacDonald: You have to understand that you’re going to be helping people with their personal brands and that’s okay. You want that. And yeah, they take that when they, when they move on. Hey, at the same time, I think that obviously we do it. So I think it can be fairly, really valuable. And any other points for like a large brand wanting to create a moat around their traffic? You mentioned a few large names earlier, but

Ryan Garrow: Yeah, I would say events can be a great moat for trackers. If you’re in the SaaS or B2B space, you’re probably involved in events, or there are industry events that you probably need to be at if you’re not. That is a great source of traffic and lead flow and you need to create a mode around that.

I don’t think it needs to be a booth at every event because I think a lot of times that’s [00:18:00] a waste of space. The expo, we rarely do, and I can’t say logical position is perfect at this, but we rarely have a booth because that’s not often where the money’s made. Sometimes you have to have a booth and that’s fine, but even just making sure your logos on the event guide.

So you have some branding and awareness and you have a person there that is willing to go out and meet people. So when I’m going to events. I find that the the companies that are most successful have the right person at the right event. I often don’t like multiple people at events if I’m the same company. Just a personal preference of mine.

Jon MacDonald: Okay.

Ryan Garrow: Because I find that they, you’ll have maybe one person that’s good at events and they put somebody else to tag along. They end up latching on and not covering double the space. They cover maybe less space than one person would alone. And so one person that really understands how to just network. And I’ll say this. If I go into an event not knowing if it’s going to be good, it’s already failed.

Jon MacDonald: Yeah.

Ryan Garrow: Like your event is made the two weeks to a month before you even show up. Where you’ve got meetings already [00:19:00] booked. You’ve got partners already engaged. You’ve got events outside of it that you’re attending.

Like we have a person or he loves conferences. Like he, it is hands down. He loves it more than anybody else on the planet. And he wants to meet every single person. He’s phenomenal at these, but he, he doesn’t plan yet. He like, it’s like two days before he’s like, Ooh, I got to get to a happier on Tuesday because I don’t have one yet.

And then what am I doing after happy hour? So he’ll do it. But he does it in much more condensed than I would prefer, but he, after every event, so that’s one of the people I will go to an event with because he’s fully autonomous, but I, and he stays out later, like my bedtime, usually in an event about nine o’clock and I’m done. You’ll take the early morning coffee.

Yeah. He handles the 9am to 4am or 9pm to 4am shift and it’s great, but we leave an event and Everybody knows it’s amazing if you’re going to do an event, you don’t necessarily need to do all of you know what he does and stays up late, but he has an impact. And so if you’re going to be in an industry leader and keep those away, you need to have some of that.

Jon MacDonald: Yeah. And I think, you know, you have to have the right personality for that, right? If [00:20:00] you’re just a by nature and introvert. And don’t really like those things, then don’t, don’t go because you have to engage.

Ryan Garrow: Yeah, don’t force yourself into that.

Jon MacDonald: Yeah.

Ryan Garrow: Yeah. You’ve got to be willing to sit down at a bar with a beer and talk to somebody you’ve never heard or, you know, even a glass of water.

You don’t know them. You’re going to meet them and they may be a prospect. They may not, doesn’t matter. And the final point, I think for large brands. is going to be you need to have great relationships with the other top companies in an industry. And so if you have the, like the top three companies in an industry solving problems together for the same group of clients, you’ve essentially created an unbreakable cartel scenario.

Like always one of my goals, you know, there’s like, I want to be able to have a cartel or I kind of friend, lead it up to a syndicate. Now you get the best of the best. And once you get them together and then they’re solving problems for these clients, those clients are not going to leave, right? A group that’s working really well together to help them grow.

And so when you have the scale to be able to pick up the phone or email The other really large company helping them and say hey, we’d like to help [00:21:00] solve this problem with you And we’re going to we have the resources just to give you and not ask for anything in return We just want to make sure this client’s taken care of that goes a long way And that’s going to come back and create this circular system of referrals Which will keep going around and around and it makes it very challenging for You know, a competitor, small competitor to try to jump into that flywheel because it just won’t be an entry point.

Jon MacDonald: Well, I’m glad I’m part of your cartel. Excuse me, syndicate. How would you suggest the startup do just that though? I think the vast majority of brands are chasing the market leader, right? So if you’re not part of that market leader cartel, how do you make that happen? What do you, what do you think you need to do?

Ryan Garrow: It’s obviously tough as you would see, like the reason the big companies are big is because they’ve done some things right. And so you’re trying to undo something that’s been done very well. And so I think against the grain, probably I would tell a smaller brand to think small, not as in you don’t want to take down a big competitor of lofty goals for your business. But you need to get very specific and targeted.

Jon MacDonald: Okay.

Ryan Garrow: And I have this [00:22:00] conversation regularly with partners trying to partner with me at logical position saying, you know, we want to partner with you. I’m like, okay, great. Yeah. Everybody wants to, cause we have a lot of clients and that’s fine. There’s nothing wrong with that, but you can’t come to me and say, well, we can’t, we built this tech to do all of these things that probably take place.

Or of 10 of your partners. I’m like, well, you’re not going to replace 10 of my partners. You have 50 clients I can’t afford to do that. Number one, you might be the best and i’ll need to pay attention to that And help you along the way if you are the actual best in certain niches, but be hyper specific around what problem you solve for my clients that I can go to them with My account teams and say hey i’ve got this partner That’s going to solve a very specific problem that is not probably being solved as well by other partners More specific is more better because you can always expand on that.

But if you’re telling me you can solve all my problems I’m just not going to listen, it’s not going to help. And another thing I would do is if you’re a small business at startup, you’ve got some clients that are probably pretty passionate about you, they’ve taken the gamble on you and they like your tech, [00:23:00] usually you’ve started that because of relationships, double down on those, follow those customers to their events.

Doesn’t really matter what event it is, you want to be by their side. Number one, you’re playing defense to keep in front of them and build a relationship, keep the competitors out, but you also want to see who else is there and what’s the potential. You know, a great example was early on in my partnership career.

I followed one of our clients to outdoor retailer, which is a, that’s an amazing event. I love it. Everybody listening should try to get to outdoor retailer because it’s just super cool.

Jon MacDonald: The kegs come out at like two, it ends up being a party.

Ryan Garrow: and there’s all the coolest stuff coming out next season is there.

Like you can see all the new shoes, all the new stuff going on trucks. You see, you know, vehicles that haven’t come out yet because they’re outfitting them for products. Just do it. It’s super cool. And it’s in Denver, usually, which I like, I think they started moving it around, but it’s just a cool spot.

When I went there with this client, number one, we had a ton of fun. We rented an Airbnb with. They’re they’re team and I stayed with them. I kept them and deep in the relationship, but I also leveraged that relationship to open up new doors and outdoor retail. So I was just [00:24:00] walking the floor saying, Hey, how you doing?

What are you doing for marketing? What’s going here? I saw, you know, opportunities for clients or new companies come on board, but also I was like, Hey, you service the same companies I’m trying to talk to, and we don’t compete. I’m going to partner with you. Yeah. So I created some great partnerships there and I wasn’t supposed to be there.

So they don’t allow agencies in Dow to a retailer unless you, you might be able to, if you spent a disgusting amount of money at the time though, they were like specifically. No agencies.

Jon MacDonald: Yeah. And so the hack for us was we would go every year and speak there and we would have a client speak with us. And that was always the hack to get into those conferences because if we can have a client get us a badge and a speaking slot and then we would do it with them and we would basically turn it into a case study and they would talk about their experience and we would provide value. Right. Of how to do something and how it turned out for this brand out there. Retailer love that.

Ryan Garrow: Oh, yeah.

Jon MacDonald: [00:25:00] They always loved it.

Ryan Garrow: And it’s unique enough because your competitors weren’t thinking like that because there was, there was a wall around that event saying it’s really difficult for an agency to get in.

So don’t try. I was like, well, I’m not going to, I usually don’t take no for an answer. So I’m like, what can I do? And great. So think through things like that, where it is a walled garden, keeping in mind. You out on purpose along with your competitors, no matter how big they are, then figure out what can I do?

Sometimes it’s just, Hey, I’ve got clients there. I’m going to have, find some, look at the list of sponsors and be like, Hey, I see you’re going to be there. I’d love to throw an event for you and some of your clients. I’ll cover the costs and we’re just going to do. A happy hour across the street. Yeah, you know, I did that at, it used to be called IRCE.

Jon MacDonald: Oh, yeah.

Ryan Garrow: It used to be good. Now it’s garbage. I don’t even know what it’s called now, but it’s, I don’t even, don’t even waste the time going at this point. And IRCE, if you’re listening or whatever you’re called now, you can call me and we can talk through it. But it’s not great. But then it was, and I said, I had Brent Baum, Ross, the CEO of Listrack.

I had one or two people from Google on stage. And I just opened up a [00:26:00] bar across the street from McCormick Place over there in Chicago and just said, Hey, invite some of your friends and come on in. I literally whoever who cares that I had some budget spend. It wasn’t a ton, but it was great. Met some phenomenal companies, but I had to think outside the box of how to get companies outside of the event that I couldn’t pay for because I was small at the time.

I couldn’t make it happen. Love that. And I think you need to think through partnerships. You know, big competitors can really do more in partnerships. Then you can, if you’re small, but partnerships becomes a way that you can level the playing field. If you focus more on the relationship piece. I think a lot of large brands that I see in the SAS space gets large enough that the partner team isn’t maybe necessarily as important as some of the other things in the organization.

And so it doesn’t get the attention and therefore they don’t attract the top talent into the partner space. Not always, but many times. And so their partnerships in that ecosystem become more of just an affiliate relationship essentially, where you get a, you’re a number and you get a newsletter and commission payouts.

But if you have somebody that’s really good in partnerships and building relationships where they come into your [00:27:00] organization with existing relationships, that can do a lot to move the needle because I will often do more for a partner that is just a good person and have a good relationship, even if I could make more money from a payout or something from a larger partner in their space.

I think you just have to get a little more creative in that space. And then I would say when you’re looking at the search, you are going to look at marketing online. And I think you have to play a spot in that to a degree. But if your budget is such a small magnitude, it’s hyper focused. And so you might only attack a small sliver of the market.

And, you know, if you have a tenth of a percent of the market right now, getting to two and three percent would be huge anyway. Yeah. Very targeted landing pages. And think through the entire search funnel, because you don’t have the shotgun blast to hit everything in the funnel. Across all search terms and so you need to think kind of that ClickFunnel, like if they need to see this piece of content on LinkedIn, then how do I get them in?

A first party list of remarketing, so I can say, then I get them on, you [00:28:00] know, meta and then I can get them on the display network around Google and then I can get a YouTube video in front of them. You can be big to a very small group of people with the, with the budget, but doesn’t even have to be big.

Yeah. You just have to be highly intentional and that’s where you’re thinking small. Like if I’m going to create a POS system for aftermarket auto, that’s a massive mark. You cannot spend enough money at SEMA to have an impact for that as you launch. And so what you need to do is say, I’m going to be aftermarket for this particular subset of products.

Maybe it’s going to be chrome wheels for cars between the sixties and seventies. And those are one really good at, and I will know the product better than any other partner trying to service them. So when I get in front of them or get on a phone call, they know that There will be nobody that knows the products I’m trying to sell better than them and you land and expand from that say, okay, I’m the best at this.

Now I’m going to add on the ancillary products that maybe they have or spend this other retailer that’s trying to sell those. Similar enough things will look at them and say, Oh, you [00:29:00] do work with them. I know them and you’re doing really well. Great. Let’s try that as well.

Jon MacDonald: I love it. It all comes down to face time, right? Being willing to have that conversation, meet up with them in person and share the love, right?

Ryan Garrow: Yeah. Well, and just making sure that you’re not, you know, once people are getting insight, like you’re taking advantage of, you know, like Jon’s team and making sure the conversions are good because it’s, you offline around, The SAS product, the conversion doesn’t happen on the site necessarily, like getting somebody to sign up for free.

I do that all the time. I have so many emails with free Adobe. Don’t tell Adobe, Jon. I know you’re looking at Adobe things that I had to edit a PDF. So I’m like, God, I got to get another email address because I just need to edit this one thing.

Jon MacDonald: Stop killing our conversion right over there.

Ryan Garrow: But it’s, it’s after the fact. So you guys make sure you’re, you are thinking through that full funnel, not just. Oh, we got a free trial. Therefore, we’re done now.

Jon MacDonald: Yeah hundred percent.

Ryan Garrow: Don’t ignore that.

Jon MacDonald: Awesome. Well, this has been enlightening to talk about more traffic for larger brands and how that complicates things and how to build that moat of the traffic moat, thinking about all the other ways you can, you can make [00:30:00] this work. So I appreciate your time today.

Ryan Garrow: No, thank you, Jon. Maybe I’ll have to trademark that traffic mode thing.

Jon MacDonald: Love it. Have at it.

Ryan Garrow: Thank you.

Announcer: Thanks for listening to Drive and Convert with Jon MacDonald and Ryan Garrow. To keep up to date with new episodes, you can subscribe at driveandconvert.com.

The post Drive and Convert (Ep. 125): Larger the Brand, More Complicated the Traffic appeared first on The Good.

Drawing from those years of experience improving SaaS platforms, we’ve identified and addressed form fatigue across various products. In this article, we’ll show you how to uncover and fix it effectively.

Keep reading to learn:

• Research methods for uncovering form fatigue
• User behavior patterns that indicate your users suffer from form fatigue
• Actionable strategies to improve form fatigue and increase conversions

What is form fatigue?

Form fatigue occurs when a user gets frustrated and/or exhausted by the complexity or length of a digital form. The poor design of the form directly contributes to this sense of fatigue and causes them to abandon.

Psychologically, users are conditioned to prefer experiences that require minimal cognitive effort. We want experiences that accomplish our goals simply and quickly. When a user experience does not meet those instincts, conversion rates drop.

Form fatigue is typically caused by things like:

• Content fatigue: When excessive textual/visual content on a page overwhelms users, hindering their ability to find relevant content for successful task completion.
• Heavy cognitive load: When undue mental effort is required to accomplish a task, causing analysis paralysis or frustration, leading to abandonment.
• High interaction cost: When a task or interaction requires significant time and/or effort to accomplish, possibly creating frustration and resulting in abandonment.

How to identify form fatigue

When working on a product day in and day out, you might be too close to the forms to know if fatigue is happening. That is where research can help.

Getting an external, real user perspective can expose things like content fatigue, heavy cognitive load, or high interaction cost in your forms.

So, the best way to identify form fatigue is through user research. While there are plenty of methods, the best for this particular scenario include:

• Session recordings
• Heatmaps
• Scroll maps
• Click maps
• User tests

With your raw data in hand, look out for some specific patterns that might indicate form fatigue:

• Scanning: A user scrolls over content (text or images) at a higher scroll rate on mobile, while on desktop they might hover over some words or phrases, or completely skip over content altogether.
• Halted Scrolling: The user pauses on the site to possibly engage with content/reorient themselves or this pause may indicate that the user perceives a false bottom.
• U-turns: When a user back navigates to the previous page they were just on, using either breadcrumbs or the back button.

These research patterns can point to moments when users are experiencing form fatigue and the digital experience can be optimized.

7 ways to prevent form fatigue

If you suspect form fatigue or uncover evidence of it in your research, don’t fret. There is plenty you can do to fix it. For companies building new forms, these tips can also be used to prevent form fatigue in the first place.

1. Execute the 10 principles of good form design

The first, and arguably the most important, way to limit form fatigue is to understand and act on the principles of good form design. Website forms are one of your most important onsite elements. They are the crux of a user’s path to conversion.

Bad form design can cause users to drop off during critical conversion opportunities, leaving them frustrated or confused, while great form design creates a seamless user experience that can increase conversion rates and leave users feeling excited about a product or company.

These are the ten established form design principles to help you create better experiences:

1. Priming: Prepare users by setting clear expectations about the form’s purpose, length, and benefits before they begin.
2. Error Prevention: Design forms to minimize user mistakes by using constraints, clear labels, and smart defaults.
3. Error Recovery: Make it easy for users to identify, understand, and fix errors with real-time validation and clear messaging.
4. Feedback: Provide immediate, actionable responses to user inputs to build confidence and guide progression.
5. Proximity: Group related fields together logically to make forms easier to navigate and process mentally.
6. Convention: Follow familiar design patterns to ensure users can complete the form intuitively without unnecessary friction.
7. Momentum: Encourage users to keep going by visually or textually reinforcing their progress through the form.
8. Proof: Build trust and reduce hesitation with evidence like security assurances, testimonials, or recognizable logos.
9. Demonstrated Value: Highlight the benefits of completing the form so users feel their effort is worthwhile.
10. Perceived Effort Level: Design forms to appear simple and manageable by minimizing visible fields and breaking longer forms into steps.

To learn more, we explore these principles and include 32 good form design examples in this companion article.

2. Ask for minimal information upfront

In research and testing for clients, we have found that asking for less information upfront may help to prevent form fatigue and in turn, increase initial registrations. The highest converting forms ask for only the necessary information in order to register, saving additional information for post-registration. That could be as little as just the email or include name and other essential information.

Once the user is registered, they can be guided through additional steps to help personalize the account to their needs, for example, more personal information, settings, shipping preferences, choosing a plan, adding orders, etc.

3. Reduce form length perception

For forms that can’t reduce the information required, research shows users’ perception of form length can be as important as the actual length.

You can reduce perceived effort with strategies like:

• Chunking forms into steps: Break longer forms into smaller, manageable sections and use clear step titles (e.g., “Step 1: Account Details”).
• Collapsible sections: Use collapsible form fields to make the interface less overwhelming while still providing access to all necessary fields.
• Auto-advance fields: Automatically move users to the next field when input is complete (e.g., credit card information split into boxes).

4. Make clear suggestions

Simplify decision-making by limiting options and highlighting recommended choices. You can use autofill and predictive text to reduce manual input and create an intuitive, logical flow that guides users naturally through the form.

5. Optimize for mobile or desktop

At this point, we shouldn’t even have to say it, but you’d be surprised how often teams forget to tailor the experience for the correct device. Form fatigue is exasperated when the design doesn’t function on the user interface being navigated. The design should adapt for mobile or desktop users, regardless of whether you are an app-first or desktop-first product.

One essential way to do this is by adjusting keyboard inputs. For example, when a field is asking for a zip code or phone number, default to the numeric keyboard on mobile to make it as simple as possible to fill out the form.

6. Use gamification to entertain

Gamifying the form-filling experience can motivate users to complete it. So, when you have an extensive form that needs filling and can’t be simplified, add elements like milestones, progress rewards, and personal messages to keep users entertained and motivated. Celebrate small wins when users complete sections and consider unlocking discounts, offers, or badges as users complete each step. It’s hard to be fatigued when you’re having fun.

7. Leverage post-signup emails

Preventing form fatigue can also happen by supplementing information in other ways. Use post-signup emails to collect information that isn’t imperative to registration. For example, a user’s birthday could come in handy for rewards later on, but it is better to collect it post-signup to prevent form fatigue.

Additionally, the email body can link the user to connect new apps to their account, access more discounts, watch tutorials, download resources, or contact their team.

Many SaaS companies also send emails from a real person to encourage users to respond if they have questions or need help. These personal follow-ups can also help recapture users who abandon the form initially.

To prevent form fatigue in UX design, focus on strategies that simplify and streamline the user’s form-filling experience. Remember, the goal is to make form completion feel easy and painless for the user.

Ready to eliminate form fatigue and boost conversions?

Form fatigue can quietly undermine your UX efforts, leading to missed conversions and frustrated users. However, with thoughtful research, clear design principles, and actionable strategies, you can create forms that not only engage users but also encourage them to complete the journey.

At The Good, we specialize in helping businesses like yours eliminate friction and create digital experiences that drive results. See this form improvement example from our work with Helium 10.

If you’re ready to optimize your forms and increase conversions, reach out to our team today. Let’s work together to turn your users into loyal customers.

The post A Guide For Preventing Form Fatigue To Increase Conversions & Improve UX appeared first on The Good.

New channels let you tap into additional audiences and volume, spurring growth and helping your business through harder times. After all, there’s a reason our parents always told us not to keep all of our eggs in one basket.

We’re big fans of an omnichannel approach, so we talked to a group of experts on the topic to get their thoughts on why and how to navigate it like a pro.

• Sam Selby, Co-founder, COO & President at Used Mobile Homes USA
• Myra Ryder — Director of Brand Strategy at Ka’Chava
• Dustin Kochis — VP of Retail Strategy and Sales, Ka’Chava
• Andy Wang — Managing Partner & CGO, KC HiLiTES

The case for DTC

For many retail products, adding a DTC channel is a surefire way to increase margins and grow your business.

However, adding a DTC channel isn’t just a way to grow revenue and margin. The upsides also include better relationships with your customers and greater insights to help you grow your brand.

Build stronger relationships with your customers

Dustin Kochis, VP of Sales at Ka’Chava, sees DTC as a powerful tool for connecting with customers. “We view DTC as a way to build stronger relationships with our customers. It’s allowed us to educate them on our mission and products in ways that retail can’t.”

Building these relationships via DTC is an approach that even legacy brands can leverage. Take Andy Wang of KC HiLiTES: when Wang acquired the decades-old company, he knew he wanted to take them digital. But it wasn’t just the margins he was after.

Wang had a vision for a new brand identity that he wasn’t satisfied to leave in the hands of retail partners to represent. To emphasize the brand’s quality and heritage, he built an image-driven website that not only sells products but tells the brand story better than retail alone could.

“We went direct to consumer not only because of the revenue and margin, but because it gives us the ability to control our own destiny. If you can build a quality relationship with your customer, that becomes a moat for your business.”

Own your data

While the benefits of DTC on education and relationships are laudable, there’s a notable third-order benefit of having an ecommerce channel that is arguably just as important: owning your data.

“Having a direct customer channel is everything because it allows you to learn about your customers,” says Sam Selby, Co-founder, COO & President at Used Mobile Homes USA.

Wang agrees. “People are too fixated on margin and revenue. There’s a treasure chest of information when users touch your website or interact with your content.”

Once Wang built his DTC arm, the benefits of owned data began to fuel his business in new ways.

“When we went direct to consumer, we got all of the emails and the psychographic details. It’s a huge help in understanding who your customers are. When you go through distribution, that gets lost,” Wang told us. “That’s another really important thing that has become an asset. Using emails, analytics, and attribution models, that is where the gold is.”

The use cases for good data go both ways. When Myra Ryder, Director of Brand Strategy at Ka’Chava, brought on a new VP of sales to help them go into retail, the existing data from DTC channels was critical in helping them to form a go-to-market strategy. “You really need the data,” says Ryder.

7 tips for thoughtfully entering DTC

If you’re sold on its benefits, the next logical step is to do some digging into how to make the transition from retail to DTC painless. Here are seven tips from the experts to help you make it as smooth as possible.

1. Define your DTC value proposition

Launching a DTC channel isn’t just about making your products available. It’s about understanding what unique value you’ll offer customers through this new channel.

According to Selby, to succeed, you need to articulate why someone should buy directly from you versus through retail. “You have to figure out what your unique value is because you’re not going to out-Amazon Amazon, and you’re not going to out-Target Target.”

2. Align your DTC and retail strategies

One common concern for retail-driven brands is how a DTC channel might impact existing retail partnerships.

Dustin Kochis, VP of Retail Strategy and Sales at Ka’Chava, emphasizes the importance of alignment. “Your DTC and retail strategies should complement each other, not compete. We’ve found success by ensuring that our retail presence reinforces the brand while DTC drives education and deeper customer engagement.”

For example, offering exclusive products or bundles online can differentiate your DTC channel without undercutting retail partners on price.

Selby shares, “To capture incremental customers without cannibalizing between channels, make sure you’re not just duplicating what your retail partners already offer.”

3. Establish a clear DTC marketing plan

Most business leaders already know the value of a marketing plan, but when opening a new channel, it becomes even more important.

Myra and Dustin from Ka’Chava say, “Whether it’s through partnerships, Instagram, or other ad campaigns, often there’s a familiarity with the brand once the consumer sees the product in-store. Leverage those educational, top-of-funnel touchpoints to stay ahead and top of mind.”

KC HiLiTES beefed up its digital marketing plans to generate a fast margin when it launched DTC. “We used a series of growth hacks to generate that margin. Then we had money to dump into marketing and could control the brand perception at scale,” said Andy.

4. Know what value your retail partners bring

Selby emphasized the importance of knowing the value of retail partners, measuring their value, and finding ways to optimize the channel so you can make the most of the DTC transition. “You really need to understand how retail is different because that will help you take advantage of DTC most effectively.”

Wang finds insight in the pricing models of retail partners. “If the price is the same anywhere you can find it on the web, at the end of the day, that distributor or dealer has to add some value beyond price. If your brand is powerful enough, it makes it so that that dealer has to add some strategic value.” That could come in extra exposure, a new customer base, or strategic learnings from their other partnerships.

“We only work with the partners that add value to our company as a whole,” finished Andy.

5. Invest in expertise

To thrive in DTC, your website needs to offer a seamless and engaging experience. Myra Ryder, Director of Brand Strategy at Ka’Chava, highlights the role of storytelling and user-centric design; “Customers expect more than just a product listing online. They want an experience that reflects your brand’s story and values. Your website should inspire trust, simplify the buying process, and communicate your unique benefits.”

She adds, “You need to find specialists and give it 110%… don’t divert people and time from other teams.” For Myra, that meant partnering with specialists like Dustin to own retail entry and The Good to optimize their DTC website.

6. Prepare for omnichannel success

Moving to an omnichannel approach comes with logistical and operational complexities. Andy Wang advises brands to prepare for changes in demand and fulfillment.

“When you add a DTC channel, you’re not just adding revenue—you’re adding complexity. From inventory management to customer service, everything needs to scale to meet new demands.”

This can include integrating inventory systems, ensuring consistent pricing, and aligning marketing efforts across channels.

And while channel conflict can set you back, there are plenty of ways to combat it. Even tweaks to the actual product can make your omnichannel strategy more successful. When Ka’Chava entered into retail, for example, they changed the packaging to reflect what DTC customers learned about via the website and shrunk down the retail package to land at a price point that was more palatable for new customers.

7. Don’t fret cannibalization

Kochis says there is “no magic formula” for predicting how a new channel will impact another channel’s sales, and the endeavor is short-sighted anyway.

When brought on to help Ka’Chava enter retail, he warned the team about the possibility of seeing an initial dip in ecommerce sales, but he said not to worry. “It’s a long play,” says Kochis.

Unlock a DTC strategy like the experts

Launching DTC is not a set-it-and-forget-it endeavor. As we established, data is your biggest ally in DTC. Track everything—from website traffic and conversion rates to customer feedback. Use these insights to continually refine your approach.

Expanding into DTC can unlock new opportunities for growth and customer engagement, but it requires careful planning and execution. By defining your value proposition, aligning with retail strategies, optimizing the digital experience, and adapting to omnichannel demands, you can set your brand up for success.

Ready to take the leap? We have many resources on DTC ecommerce from 15+ years of optimizing for brands like yours. Check them out here.

The post 7 Expert Tips On How Retail Brands Can Launch A DTC Ecommerce Channel appeared first on The Good.

For McKenna Warren, Community Engagement Manager at GLDN, the answer is an emphatic “yes.”

GLDN, a jewelry company that views its products as a vehicle for social good, measures success in positive impact.

“I have studied the potential for the system of capitalism to be turned on its head and used for good,” says Warren. “The model of having a triple bottom line, people, planet, and profit, is the most effective system we have for social change at scale.”

The team at GLDN isn’t alone in their thinking. A growing group of businesses rigorously measure their social and environmental impact to the standard of B Corp certification (we at The Good are proud to be one of them!). What could once have been called a trend has transformed into a movement of professionals and customers alike who value the potential of making business a force for good.

Consumer Expectations are Shifting

The shift in focus to social and environmental good is paying off not just in karmic kudos but in measurable business outcomes. eCommerce brands with a social mission have experienced a disproportionate rate of growth compared to their neutral counterparts.

This is partially due to the shift in consumer expectations. One study estimates that 70% of consumers are concerned with how the brands they support address social and environmental issues.

GLDN’s own research agrees. Internal surveys show that their customers specifically appreciate GLDN’s intention with regard to environmental and social impact. “It continually rises to the surface that it is so important to customers. It’s the reason that a lot of people shop with GLDN over other brands,” says Warren.

For brands that do take an environmental or social approach, the key to connecting their mission to customer experience is in the end-to-end execution. “It’s one thing for a brand to sort of tack it on at the end and it’s another for it to be integrated from the beginning,” says Warren.

Whether it’s uncharacteristically using plastic wrap in your fulfillment process or using a tone-deaf campaign delivery, presenting your initiative and then violating your customers’ expectations in their shopping journey is a surefire way to break trust. It’s a pitfall that CEO and Founder of Monday Creative, Amanda Lee Smith, says can be avoided if brands 1) define their purpose and 2) make decisions based on it.

“I don’t think any brand should start talking to consumers until they know what their purpose and their pillars are,” says Smith.

For Smith, crafting a meaningful brand experience is about mapping every decision back to your values. Whether it’s content, an influencer relationship, or the box you deliver your goods in, defining how those decisions uphold your brand values is crucial. Moving forward without that clarity of vision, Smith says, is “a waste of money and energy.”

10 Ways to Embed your Mission Throughout your Brand Experience

For mission-driven brands, the key to earning and keeping trust is embedding brand values throughout the end-to-end customer experience. But how do top brands actually pull it off?

We interviewed practitioners at the epicenter of mission-driven ecommerce to learn how they embed brand values throughout the brand experience. Here are their 10 tips that help them stick the landing.

1. Participate in give-back programs

If you’re looking for a way to have a direct, measurable impact on causes you’re aligned with, consider standing up a Give Back program: directly committing a set percentage of annual profits to organizations that closely align with your values.

National certification programs offer a compelling level of transparency to give-back initiatives. Organizations like 1% for the Planet independently verify that participating companies give 1% of profits annually to environmental partner organizations.

However, you don’t have to be part of a certification program to participate in similar giving initiatives.

GLDN contributes a whopping 10% of profits annually to causes supporting liberation, education, and community building. “Partnering with nonprofits is proven to be one of the most effective ways to make change,” says Warren.

2. Be specific about your impact

Whether you’re investing in thoughtful manufacturing processes, circular production methods, or your employees’ quality of life, consumers appreciate specificity when it comes to sharing your impact. Take it from Maggie, Digital Strategist at The Good, who says “When talking about your impact, a little specificity goes a long way.”

In Maggie’s experience, it’s not enough to share the headline details, which usually don’t perform well in testing.

“When we’ve A/B tested phrases like ‘Ethical Production,’ we’ve noticed that they generally don’t perform as well as messages with more specificity. Qualitative surveys have shown us that users want brands to do the legwork—to share metrics that can validate the authenticity of their claims. How much landfill waste is diverted? What is the quality of life like for factory workers? We’ve learned that specificity in claims both honors the intelligence of your audience and shines a better light on the brand’s impact.”

Maggie advises that brands looking to share their impact start by finding the metrics they can quantify. Maybe that’s the amount of landfill waste diverted or the number of students you’ve impacted with your give-back programs. Whatever you land on, Maggie advises that “your audience will appreciate the specificity.”

3. Spotlight your purpose throughout your promotions calendar

If you’re looking for ways to center your values throughout your brand experience, consider taking a more purposeful approach to seasonal sales and promotions.

“We encourage our clients to not feel like they have to have a voice on everything.” Says Smith, who advises her clients to start by deciding which holidays to recognize. “There are brands that feel like they need to have a social post about every special day or movement. You can deeply care about a cause and also not be the voice of that cause.”

Opting out of holidays can be a powerful way to center your purpose. Outdoor retailer REI does just that when it comes to Black Friday. In 2015, at a time when no other large retailer had shut down on Black Friday, REI decided to pay their employees to take the day off and “OptOutside,” getting outdoors instead of participating in what REI CEO called “out of hand” Black Friday sales.

While the OptOutside approach aligns well with REI's mission, you don’t have to completely “opt out” to take a more purposeful approach. Jewelry with a purpose brand GLDN flips Black Friday on its head with a promotion they call Bright Friday.

In lieu of a sale on Black Friday, GLDN donates an additional $5 from each order to the First Nations Development Institute (FNDI), a non-profit working to improve economic conditions for Native Americans through grants, training, and other services.

“In a sea of sales and discounts and red text everywhere, it's always a breath of fresh air,” says Marissa Moore, GLDN’s Lead Brand Designer. “We get to focus on FNDI, celebrate them in the message, and really live out our values in the purest form possible—by taking this time that's so sales-oriented and profit-driven, and give back to something we all care about so passionately.”

Whether you’re opting out or reframing a holiday to match your purpose, Smith advises that brands get selective about which holidays, occasions, and current issues to incorporate into their message. “A promotions calendar is a really good way to double down on what you care about.”

4. Say something through the product itself

If you’re looking to work toward a mission, there is perhaps no better way to center that than in your product itself. Japanese camping brand Snow Peak is possibly the best example of that.

Snow Peak’s mission is to create “restorative outdoor experiences that alleviate the stresses of modern life.” But, their approach centers on a uniquely Japanese perspective.

Mike Anderson, Senior Brand Manager at Snow Peak, explains that the very idea that the outdoors is so separate from the self and is a place where comfort is not warranted is a Western framing.

“In the West, camping is like what you see in Calvin and Hobbes growing up. It's something that builds character. It's hardening to the spirit.” Anderson says this is in direct contrast to Snow Peak’s Japanese perspective. “Japanese didn’t even have a word for nature for hundreds of years until the Portuguese came. Before that, the relationship with nature was so close that they didn't really have a word for it.”

Aligned with that framing, Snow Peak’s products are intentionally designed to enhance, rather than detract from, the experience of being outdoors. It’s why you won’t see any high-visibility orange or green tents in a Snow Peak showroom, which Anderson says is all tied back to the mission. “We're trying to help people just find some calm and be inspired to spend time in nature.”

5. Sprinkle brand messaging throughout the website—not just on the Homepage or About Us pages

One thing is common among the brands we work with, and I’m guessing it’s true for you as well: very few visitors ever make it to the “About Us” page. What’s more, for many ecommerce brands, a large percentage of visitors may never even make it to the homepage.

If you’re doing any kind of Google or Bing shopping bidding, it’s common for site visitors from those cost-per-click channels to never actually visit the homepage and either convert or abandon after visiting only the product page.

In practical terms, this means that all the homepage real estate that your marketing team and C-suite fight over—the homepage hero banner and mission statements—likely aren’t seen by a large portion of your audience. While it might be disappointing to learn that your audience is missing out on all that curated content, we believe knowledge is power, and you can use this information for good.

GLDN has leveraged this pattern to improve conversion rates for product page visitors. The Good’s Digital Strategist Sumita Paulson explains, “When we performed our audit of the site, we found that GLDN had social impact messaging on some pages, but not really present on product pages, especially above the fold.”

Paulson explains that for a brand like GLDN, she wanted to leverage that unique approach to communicate quality and purpose. “Social impact is baked into the product from how they hand make it to where the revenue goes. There’s a lot of care put in, so we started by featuring their efforts throughout the product page, and it won spectacularly.”

“We were pretty shocked at how just making that message more visible resulted in higher engagement, higher conversion, and a 12% increase in adds to cart,” says GLDN’s Marissa Moore.

Paulsen explains that the solution is simple, but it wouldn’t necessarily work for all brands. “I think there’s this perception of experimenters always adding things to a page. Our approach is not that. In general, we take a ‘less is more’ approach to optimization. But in this case, GLDN’s mission is so baked into the brand experience that we felt it was missing at the product page level.”

Moore cautions that simply messaging your stances on social issues isn’t enough to overcome a poor product offering, but it can be the deciding factor for visitors choosing between yours and a competitive product. “It’s not their first thing driving a purchase decision, but ultimately, it’s that extra little bit that would push them over the edge with us versus one of our competitors,” says Moore.

6. Educate customers with a faucet, not a firehose

For brands with social impact at their core, it can be hard to clearly communicate social impact throughout the website without overdoing it. You have to make sure it is “woven throughout the ethos,” as Marissa Moore of GLDN puts it, but too much of a good thing can be counterproductive.

How do you find the right balance and communicate your purpose if you’re committed to causes like environmental impact, empowering women and girls, and Indigenous sovereignty, among others?

For companies like GLDN that affect change through a mix of approaches, they’ve learned that not every touchpoint is suitable for every message. “What we've begun to discover is that different platforms are the right place for different messages,” says Warren. Rather than sharing their entire approach in each communication, GLDN highlights their intentionality in a slow drip—throughout the customer journey. They share women’s empowerment messages on social media while reserving their nuanced approach to environmentalism for the shopping experience.

For brands with a similarly matrixed approach, it might be wise to consider when and where certain parts of your mission are best communicated. The slow drip approach assures your brand story unfolds elegantly over the course of the brand experience, rather than overwhelming users on first look.

7. Use collaborations to bring awareness of the causes you care about

If you’re looking for ways to raise money, increase awareness, and inspire excitement for sister causes that matter to you, consider a product collaboration.

Pendleton Woolen Mills has been doing just that with its National Parks Collection since 1916. The year the National Parks Service was born, so too was Pendleton’s first National Parks blanket. What started as a collection of blankets, each named after an iconic national park, has expanded into the National Parks Collection, which now includes apparel and accessories. But the collection is more than the product itself. The National Park Collection’s profits go back to the nonprofit’s namesake, which to-date totals more than $1.7 million.

Again, every collaboration is an opportunity to highlight the causes you care about, but it’s important to inform your customers about the specific ways you contribute.

“When we started working with Pendleton, we discovered that brand awareness was strong on the West Coast, but elsewhere in the country we had a long way to go to inform shoppers about their unique history and approach,” says The Good’s Strategist, Sumita Paulson. “We tested our way into a message that not only educated customers about the National Parks, but highlighted the dollars raised for the charity. We found that it not only improved consumers’ brand perception, but it also increased purchases by 9%.”

8. Say more with imagery

If you are producing original imagery for your brand, how does the approach highlight your brand values? Smith says being intentional about the art direction can be the key way to connect the dots for your audience. “That is where the mission should shine through.”

From Patagonia making feature-length films about dam removal to a small technical clothing brand showing their product in use, Smith contends that brands should ditch the studio images and let their campaign strategy say something more.

“That's your core opportunity to speak to who you are. If you're an apparel brand and you have a purpose, it shouldn't just be your clothes on the white background. How can you tie in your purpose?”

Smith highlights her project for the original Canadian camping brand Woods as an example. Her strategy was to nod to their heritage by leveraging a farm-style setting and graphic treatments borrowed from the brand archives. “We were really able to shine the light on their history. It was all about that original 1800s heritage.”

9. Invest in community-building experiences

If your community has a shared interest, how do you feed their fire? For Snow Peak, fostering a community is perhaps what they do best. Although they are beloved for their intentional product design, Senior Brand Manager Mike Anderson insists that when it comes to Snow Peak’s values, design is secondary to the community around it.

“We hold our audience above everything else. They are what makes the brand special, so we're constantly investing in experiences that help enable and foster that connectivity in our community.”

Snow Peak has been following through on this for years with experiences like Snow Peak Way (their annual camping festival), opening Takibi, a Japanese restaurant in the heart of NW Portland, and expanding their North American presence with their impressive showroom. But there is perhaps no more meaningful way to experience the Snow Peak way than with their most recent activation: the Long Beach Campfield.

The Campfield is a thoughtful campsite on Washington’s Long Beach Peninsula that offers campers a way to relax and enjoy the restorative properties of nature and a chance to try Snow Peak gear through rentals and an on-premises retail experience. It’s an on-brand way for people to grow in community and experience firsthand how Snow Peak products can enhance the outdoors.

10. Get intentional with packaging & fulfillment

What do physical touchpoints like packaging, packing materials, and mailers say about your brand?

While it’s true that fulfillment leaves a lasting impression, Smith contends that it doesn't mean you need to go all-out with unnecessary add-ons. Precisely because the unboxing experience is so important, she believes it can be a pivotal moment to cement your brand values with your customers.

“How many times have you gotten a package from somewhere and thought, ‘How many boxes? Why is this tiny thing in a giant box with all of these packing chips and blow-up cellophane?’”

Smith evaluates a brand’s fulfillment and packaging in the course of any rebranding project. “It’s where we can have the biggest impact on our clients.”

Smith recommends brands looking to go green choose natural tape that biodegrades and find ways to eliminate some of these “extras” like postcards and stickers. By adopting recycled packing materials and a minimal waste approach, Smith insists that the added cost of going green is usually quite minimal. “Pricing out both the sustainable option and comparing with the less sustainable option, they are usually not as dramatically different as you might think.”

Aside from being the better choice for the planet, going minimal with pack-and-ship decisions can have a strategic upside as well. Take, for example, Noah Clothing. Noah doesn’t claim to be a completely sustainable company, saying, “True sustainability would mean turning back the clock on over a century of clothing consumption and production trends.” Yet their outspoken founder’s stance on the sustainability problem in fashion combined with their packaging that “sucks” have together earned the brand a favorable reputation within the industry.

Noah opts for some of the most un-fancy packaging in ecommerce: a simple recycled envelope and a postcard to remind the recipient that 30% of municipal waste comes from packing materials.

Grow Your Business, Grow Your Impact

Taking inspiration from peers with similar values is sure to set you on the right path, and then you can carve your own unique road to success.

Showcasing your social and environmental initiatives will build trust and loyalty with your shoppers… especially when they connect with your mission. And the best part? When you grow your business, you can grow your impact and achieve the shared goal of using “business as a force for good.”

If you’re interested in tailored recommendations on how to put these ideas into action for your ecommerce brand, get in touch with our team. Your social initiatives and your shoppers are unique to your business and deserve an individual approach.

The post 10 Ways To Center Social Impact Throughout The Ecommerce Customer Journey appeared first on The Good.

Emma Leyden knows. As a senior product manager who specializes in human-centered design, she’s spent years using unique research techniques to create explosive product growth.

Recently, Emma was with Polygence, a high-growth seed-stage startup that connects students with mentors. Before that, she was with IDEO, an award-winning global design firm, where she honed her ability to uncover user insights through user research to make product decisions. And before that, she worked at Title Nine, an ecommerce women’s clothing company.

Emma is committed to designing user-centric and data-driven products that drive engagement. She believes that if you create great experiences for customers, business value will follow.

“I’ve really always been focused on understanding the deep needs,” she tells us. “Once I figure out a user’s need, I can use those insights to inform product decisions and fuel growth.”

Emma brings a robust basket of tools to the table: UX research, design, agile methodologies, and honed skill of marrying user needs and business objectives. We had the pleasure of working with Emma when she was with IDEO, and we caught up with her recently to get her best tips on how today’s product leaders can make a measurable impact on their organizations.

Today, we’re sharing insights from that chat, including:

• What human-centered product management is
• Why Emma can’t live without experimentation
• Her favorite tools for product research
• How to pick an agency partner

A Human-Centered Approach to Product Management

There is something uniquely refreshing about talking to a digital leader who remembers there is a real person on the other side of the screen. For Emma Leyden, a human-centered approach to product management keeps her focused on what really matters: the end user.

“As a product manager, you should feel as if the customer is in the room with you as you’re making product decisions,” Emma says. “You should be able to speak with the voice of the customer because you’ve talked to so many people, but also because you’ve synthesized enough and you understand your audience.”

What Is Human-Centered Product Management?

Human-centered product management is exactly what it sounds like. A style of work that has a person anchoring everything you do. It can show up in the way you talk to customers, experiment, or lead your team.

Talking To Your Customers

In some cases, human-centered product management means literally bringing customers into the office. For example, in one role, Emma’s team saw sports bra sales fall 5% year over year. To uncover why, she brought in five women who consistently shop for sports bras to learn what’s important to them when buying a bra.

After her conversations with real customers, she learned about the vulnerability and body issue challenges of purchasing a bra online. She also learned that the site’s photography wasn’t meeting their needs, and color choices within the same style were important.

“It wasn’t an extensive study. It was just five women, but talking to them helped us change the way we merchandised our products.” Once you learn your customer, you can take a human-centered approach to those decisions.

Data & Experimentation

Though crucial to the success of human-centered product management, physically talking to the customer isn’t the only way to inform your work. Emma incorporates a diverse mix of strategies to ensure she is making the right decisions.

“Everything should be data-driven when you're making a product decision,” Emma says. Every single stakeholder - including developers, designers, and leaders - will ask you for data to justify your decision. So you always have to have data to back it up and also to track if your enhancements improved something.”

Where does the data come from? Experimentation. “Experimentation is a tool to gut-check your decisions,” Emma tells us. It’s an important way to identify possible improvements as well as validate what you think you know. “It might not give you 100% or even 80% confidence, but it can tell you if you’re headed in the right direction or not.”

It embodies the “human-centered” spirit by keeping your personal bias out of the picture.

“I can't live without A/B testing. There have been so many times in my career I found myself too close to the product. I thought I had a handle on things, but an A/B test showed that I wasn’t right. It’s actually fun to be surprised like that.”

Data and experimentation can tell stories about customers if you know how to listen. The right metrics, when considered together, can paint a picture of delight, frustration, and everything in between, keeping leaders focused on the customer experience.

Leading Your Team

Human-centered product management means building products and making decisions based on and for the user. But it also means collaborating with your team and connecting with them where they are.

“Having strong leadership skills is important, but also I think strong collaboration skills are key as well.” Collaborating with different experts, in many cases, means learning to speak their language. “For example, if you have the skill to say to a designer, ‘Here’s where the engineer is coming from’ or ‘Here’s how they’re going to interpret your design,’ you can make a more efficient communication channel, which makes the team work faster and ship better products.”

A good product manager can bridge the gaps and translate messages across teams because of that human-centered approach. It also keeps you open-minded and ready for the unexpected. It's important as a product leader to bring in people who might not always be part of the ideation phase but can offer a lot of valuable input. That’s because creativity doesn't just come from the top.

“I have a deep belief that everyone is creative. I think that engineers are some of the most creative people in any organization. When I say that, CEOs look at me shocked, but engineers are closest to the work and want to ship products that will actually be used, so they have a good idea of what should be built.”

Using Creative Research Methods to Gain Confidence In Product Decisions

The good news for product leaders everywhere is that you don’t need millions of dollars and thousands of customer conversations to take a human-centered approach. Sometimes, you just need a cardboard box.

If you’re going to embrace creativity from unexpected places across your organization, why not get a little “out-of-the-box” in your own techniques and tactics? Emma shared some of her favorite tools for creative product research. Hopefully, these drive home the point that anyone can take a human-centered approach to product management regardless of budget, time, or audience size.

Low-Fidelity Prototyping

User testing with prototypes is one of Emma’s main tools for getting a gut check before taking design and messaging to production.

“The point of a prototype is to communicate the absolute bare minimum of a feature enhancement and see how users react,” she says. “You can throw a prototype together, put it in front of someone, and learn a lot quickly.”

Emma uses two types of prototyping:

• Prototyping for designers: Designers are visual people, so to help them understand what you want from a product, you have to give them something visual. It doesn’t have to be pretty, but a quick mockup or sketch is a powerful way to bridge the communication gap.
• Prototyping for users: These don’t need to be fully developed, but they have to be something users can use. “This does not need to be fancy,” she tells us “I’ve literally made prototypes with cardboard and put them in front of users.” The point is to communicate the absolute bare minimum of a feature.

“One of the beauties of prototyping is that when you take the design elements out of it, you're stripping down the feedback,” Emma says. It prevents users from being influenced by unimportant details or things that can be tested and changed later. It lets you focus on the functionality and usability of a product.

Out-of-the-box User Research

Emma also likes to use creative, outside-the-box UX research techniques to uncover insights to inform design and product decisions. Here are a few of the fun examples she shared that may come in handy for your own efforts.

The Scavenger Hunt Approach for Discoverability Insights

The scavenger hunt approach is useful when you’re trying to validate whether users can find information. In this test, Emma asks a user (or a group of users) to find a piece of information in a website, webpage, or document.

How they search and how long it takes them to find the information helps you understand their mental models and whether the site, page, or document matches their thinking.

"In one case, we knew a specific piece of information was key from a previous test, but we had to validate if users could easily find it," Emma explains. "People were scanning through the document like crazy, and we quickly learned that what we thought was obvious on page six was actually buried too deep."

Hot Dot Voting for Honest Feedback

Hot dot voting is an exercise where Emma gives users access to the digital workspace of some product. Then she asks them to add green dots to portions of the workspace that resonate with them and red dots to portions they find confusing or frustrating.

"The beauty of this method is that it gives people time to think,” Emma tells us. “They’re not being put on the spot to say something they like or dislike at the moment, which can lead to biased answers. Instead, they reflect quietly and provide more thoughtful responses."

Ultimately, this technique produces valuable conversations about the product. The facilitator gets a chance to see the themes people follow when exploring or using the product.

Turning Creative Research & Design Into Business Success

Emma’s human-centered approach has served her well in her career. She has a long history of creating impactful change at every organization she’s been a part of. Sticking to her unique approach has delivered huge results and some key learnings along the way.

Turning User Insights Into A 733% Sales Increase

In one instance, Emma delved into a product that was underperforming at Polygence. It was intended to serve as an add-on to the core product, but customers weren’t buying. After talking with users (students and program mentors), operational staff, and salespeople, she discovered that the product was built to serve two very distinct user needs. Customers found this dichotomy confusing.

The solution was to split the product into two separate products, each serving a different purpose. The new products were given clean messaging and offered to different customer segments alongside the core product.

The results of Emma’s research approach created a 733% sales increase. “This is an example of where good research and strategic thinking can help you make simple choices that make a big impact on business metrics,” she tells us.

Using Experimentation To Increase Clicks By 250%

In another case, Emma learned that what users say they want isn’t always what they really want. At IDEOU, customers requested more price transparency, so Emma’s team displayed course prices throughout the website. Unfortunately, this had a negative impact on sales.

After running A/B tests, she learned that user feedback didn’t match their behavior. When she removed prices, they saw a 250% increase in clicks to the enroll button.

“This was a clear example (that actually happens often) where a user says they want something, but their behavior is actually different,” Emma says. “Experimentation is important because it helps you understand how much to follow what users say.”

Finding an External Partner for Product Success

While Emma has had plenty of success on her own, she’s no stranger to calling in external partners who can make her optimization team stronger.

Hiring an agency is a lot like finding a romantic partner. You can’t grab just anyone. You have to find the one that’s right for you. Emma tries to look deeper into potential relationships with external partners, beyond the initial pitch.

“When you get a slide deck from an agency, they’ll try to show you how they’re going to move the needle and get good results,” she tells us. “But I think you should go beyond that. You should try to understand if they truly understand your business and if they align with your values.”

Furthermore, Emma likes asking hard questions. She wants to know, for instance, what happens if a test has a strong negative result. How the agency responds will tell you a lot. Do they answer honestly or do they sugarcoat their response?

How does she build good agency relationships? With a practiced vetting process.

Emma believes relationships with agencies should be collaborative. Neither side should dictate the relationship, what needs to be done to move the needle or the pace. You and the agency should be on the same team with the same priorities, but each brings different perspectives to the table.

“Once you start a working relationship, everything beyond the kickoff call should feel mutual. It should not feel like they are talking at you for the whole time, and then you get to ask a question at the end.”

Why was Emma attracted to The Good? We value the same kind of partnership that Emma requires in an agency. We both recognize that great product development comes from a collaborative effort between the internal stakeholders who know the customers well and external partners who know optimization.

One Final Piece of Advice? Approach Product Growth With Nuance For The Best Results

There are some folks with a "test everything" mindset, where nothing is launched without testing, but there are other leaders who advocate for almost the opposite. "Founder mode" is about instinct and speed. So, to wrap up our conversation, we asked Emma a question that frequently occurs in the industry: Is there one “right” approach to product growth?

“Your approach depends on the size and status of your company,” Emma says. “If you’re a small seed stage startup, you’re launching and learning and doing your experimentation post-launch. But a more established company has an expectation of a certain experience, so they have to be more thoughtful about what and how often they launch.”

While product intuition is important, it’s important to keep in mind we all have our biases. Sometimes, it’s hard to see our products from different perspectives, which is why testing is important. If you feel the need to launch quickly, you should at least perform what she calls a “gut check.”

“Your ‘gut check’ can be done in low-effort ways. It won’t give you the most confident answer, but something as simple as showing a design to like friends and family before you launch can teach you a lot.”

As a good rule of thumb, Emma encourages having some kind of user research scheduled every week, even if it’s as simple as letting someone see or use the prototype of a product and voicing their thoughts aloud. You can learn a lot about the usability of a product with this kind of approach.

Getting Results As A Product Leader

Emma’s incredible results are a testament to her human-centered approach to product design. We hope more product managers take such a deep interest in their customers to design incredible products and experiences.

Good product leaders like Emma know that staying user-centered and making informed, data-backed decisions is the key to success. Hiring an agency like The Good can help you do just that. Our team can amplify your impact with the tools, technique, and expertise that you just can’t find in a single hire.

Learn more about our Digital Experience Optimization Program. We bring all the pieces you need to complete an optimization puzzle and build a better digital journey.

The post How Emma Leyden’s Approach to Human-Centered Product Management Delivers Results appeared first on The Good.