Selecting the right optimization team lead can make or break your digital experience. The optimization lead is the linchpin in advocating on behalf of the customer, improving user experience, and ultimately boosting revenue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Whether you are promoting in-house, looking at external candidates, or wondering about outsourcing to a firm, here are the best (and worst) signs of a successful optimization team lead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019ll preface by saying something obvious: every skill set can be a strength in one scenario and a weakness in another. Keeping aesthetics as the north star may make an excellent designer or marketing leader, while it could be completely detrimental for an SEO specialist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Similarly, what makes a great optimization team lead may not make a great HR manager or sales executive. When deciding who should head up your optimization program, the goal is to focus on the strengths and pitfalls of project sponsors, specifically.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In our experience, the best optimization team leads have a blend of skills that set them apart:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A program leader orchestrates efforts, balances priorities, and drives results. They are the glue connecting various stakeholders, from designers to developers to CMOs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many roles that may appear to be the obvious choice for the optimization team lead struggle when it comes to making the switch. If you are leaning towards a designer, dev, or CMO\/CEO to lead your optimization program, each has a unique set of predictable strengths and weaknesses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Let\u2019s take a look at their strengths and pitfalls, and I encourage you to keep these in mind as you decide who is going to head up your experimentation efforts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Designers bring a keen eye for aesthetics and user experience to the table. However, some nuances make it difficult for a designer-turned-lead to succeed in optimization program management.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Best brand advocates: <\/strong>Designers are some of the best brand advocates. They understand the importance of keeping your digital experience cohesive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Understand design impact: <\/strong>They also know first-hand the profound impact design can have on revenue goals, so they\u2019re likely to champion changes while creating a sleek and beautiful digital experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Open to big changes: <\/strong>Designers are often more open than other team members to big changes. They see high-leverage opportunities and are always looking for the best iteration of website or app elements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Designers leading an optimization program risk prioritizing fidelity over speed, allowing perfectionism to bog them down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Apprehension toward mid-fidelity: <\/strong>There is an element of experimentation that requires shipping ideas for initial feedback before they are completely buttoned up. Mid-fidelity prototypes<\/a> can be an incredible resource for learning about your audience and validating website or app changes, and designers are often hesitant to leverage the tool.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Difficulty prioritizing usability: <\/strong>They can prioritize branding over usability and the user experience, giving more weight to aesthetics when one of the most important pieces of an optimization puzzle is staying user-centered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n All of this culminates, and we often see designers forgetting the forest for the trees, overlooking the bigger picture, and getting bogged down in the details. Also known as \u201cbikeshedding<\/a>\u201d this can present as a bias towards focusing on minor issues and neglecting important issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For designers to be in the lead, they need to remember that optimization is about testing in sometimes less-than-perfect fidelity to get proof of concept. Once they are bought into the quick-and-dirty nature of rapid prototyping and have gotten over the expectation that everything should be pixel-perfect before it\u2019s shared, they\u2019ll make a great team lead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Developers are the backbone of technical implementation, but their leadership capabilities vary. Generally, we are of the opinion that it is crucial to involve devs in the optimization program, but the skills that make a great developer can limit the capabilities of an optimization program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Efficiency aficionados: <\/strong>Devs are great at finding efficiencies and keeping your digital product up and running. They know production schedules which prevents optimization efforts from breaking parts of the digital experience, and they can help coordinate the timing of changes.<\/p>\n\n\n\nDesigners can get hung up on minutia and cost time in favor of fidelity<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
How to prepare designers for the role of optimization lead<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
What developers bring to the optimization lead role<\/h2>\n\n\n\n