listen up

You know the old saying, ‘Do it right the first time.’ What if that’s not the right answer though? What if the first time was a warm-up, a trial, a learning experience? What if the first time was a baseline to measure against?

Often, we want to dive in and spend time crafting the perfect strategy, the perfect design, and the perfect email campaign. We do our homework, we measure twice, cut once, and so on. But then the customer does something unexpected. They click the wrong link, they skip the page we put so much time and effort into and jump around like we didn’t expect.

What if we changed this mindset? Let’s call the first version test 1, like Website homepage design test 1. Then, as soon as we launch it, we measure the results. When we approach the work with a scientific mindset and assign expected inputs and outputs to a set experiment, we can measure, test, and make revisions.

So let’s say down with the one shot to get it right. That’s never how science works. When Thomas Edison was working on the lightbulb, he said, “I haven’t failed — I’ve just found 10,000 that won’t work.”

“I haven’t failed — I’ve just found 10,000 that won’t work.”

Let’s find the ones that don’t work, get them out of the way and keep moving. Maybe it does work, but it could be better. Remember that lightbulb Edison had, well it’s gone now. We did the CFL thing, and now the LED thing — they keep getting better. The original lightbulb worked just fine, but these LED bulbs work better. Improved technology outputs better, energy efficient light.

How can we build a web strategy that not only works but produces more results at fewer costs? By working together, we can build the scientific tests, to find the measurable win, and track results to every project. We find these make excellent monthly engagements where every month we plan out tests, goals, ideas, and execute on them. Let’s fail together, but eventually, build that better lightbulb.