The goal of this interview series is to inspire and help people to transition their career into a new or next experimentation related role. In this edition Georgiana Hunter-Cozens shares her journey.
Georgina is a Senior Strategy (Experimentation) Consultant based in London, UK. She has been in the industry in a roundabout way since 2018 when she started at a small agency start-up in Bath, which was mainly focused on PPC. She moved from there to a SAAS agency, before moving in-house to a hotel chain in March 2020…which was pretty interesting! Georgina moved into her current role at Creative CX in April 2022, and she is absolutely loving it!
I can see experimentation becoming more embedded into existing processes and tools, removing the reliance on developers for basic tests and hopefully empowering many more teams to start experimenting!
Georgiana Hunter-Cozens
What is your current experimentation role and what do you do?
I am a Senior Strategy Consultant at a consultancy called Creative CX. We’re a specialist experimentation consultancy, so I work with my clients on both long term and short term experimentation strategy. My work can essentially be split into two parts; helping my clients to improve and scale their existing programmes, or establish new ones, and then actually delivering experimentation.
On the delivery side, this involves discussing user problems and opportunities, running ideation sessions, prioritising A/B test ideas and creating test plans, working with our developers, QA Engineers, and our UX team, to design and build these experiments, and then oversee and analyse them.
On the scaling side, I spend time understanding the goals of my clients, their current operating models and internal team structures, and then we work together to establish clear timelines for onboarding new teams, setting up processes, programme metrics, roadmaps and backlogs, and defining training needs. We have a real focus on scaling experimentation across the wider business, so I work with and train a lot of diverse teams.
We are also ‘platform agnostic’, so I work with a lot of different tools and platforms and I’m often learning something new myself!
How did you enter the experimentation space? What was your first experimentation related role?
My journey into experimentation was in quite a circuitous way – I was working for a very small EduTech startup in Bath (where I was at University), heading up their Customer Service area. I spent time optimising their processes, as well as setting up new processes and making suggestions for how they could optimise their site to prevent quite a few enquiries. I found myself very invested in that aspect, so I ended up interviewing for a graduate job at another small agency in Bath, SearchStar. They were primarily a PPC company, but had a small in-house CRO team. I joined as a CRO specialist, where most of my role was focused on reviewing landing pages and analysing the occasional A/B test. That job definitely ignited my interest in experimentation!
How did you start to learn experimentation?
I started learning experimentation through experience while at SearchStar, but actually a lot of my initial knowledge came from completing the amazing courses on CXL, either during that role or my next role. I think I completed every course I could at the time – covering experimentation, statistical analysis, and even the psychology of experimentation designs. However, I’ve probably learned more in the last 18 months thanks to going to more conferences (like Experimentation Elite) and making more of an effort to read the amazing articles shared by industry experts. Signing up for the ‘Experimental Mind’ newsletter was also a game changer. And of course learning on the job, as I’ve been lucky enough to work with some fantastic clients at Creative CX.
How do you apply experimentation in your personal life? (what are you tinkering with or always optimizing?)
We got a couple of kittens last year, who are now full grown cats, and I definitely spent quite a while tinkering with which food they preferred, how much to give them, as well as which litter to use and which toys they prefer! I’m actually planning a talk around experimentation in real life, so keep an eye out for that.
What are you currently doing to keep up with the ever-changing industry?
I am connected with quite a few experimentation experts on LinkedIn, so make an effort to read what they’re posting. I also love attending the Experimentation Elite conference and learning from other conferences. I’m very lucky to work with some very experienced and skilled colleagues at Creative CX, so we love sharing knowledge internally and learning from each other and our range of clients.
What recommendations would you give to someone who is looking to join the experimentation industry and get their first full-time position?
There are lots of different routes into experimentation, and experimentation can mean different things to different teams. Figure out what you like, what’s your niche, and don’t be afraid to reach out and talk to people! I’d recommend finding some people on LinkedIn and reading their content too.
It’s also important to figure out whether you are more interested in the process of optimisation (e.g uncovering winning solutions, using analysis to generate ideas) or the more theoretical side of experimentation (e.g enabling teams to get started with experimentation, driving the experimentation mindset internally) as this could mean the difference between looking for more of a product manager role or looking for more of a specialist experimentation role, as well as the sort of company structures you may be looking to join.
Which developments in experimentation excite you? How do you see the field changing in the next 5 to 10 years?
The term “personalisation” has been floating around for a while now, but I think the improvements in AI could really take it to another level and help us to deliver real value from personalisation.
I’m also really excited to see experimentation become more mainstream – at Creative CX we do a lot of work setting up Centers of Excellence and embedding experimentation into the workflow of Product teams , so I can see this approach continuing to expand. I can also see experimentation becoming more embedded into existing processes and tools, removing the reliance on developers for basic tests and hopefully empowering many more teams to start experimenting!
Is there anything people reading this can help you with? Or any parting words?
I always love connecting with others on LinkedIn, and really recommend any women to join the ‘Women in Experimentation’ network. Obviously, if anyone is looking for any help getting their own experimentation programmes set up or running smoothly don’t be afraid to reach out!
Which other experimenters would you love to read an interview by?
I’d love to read an interview by Eden Bidani – I first heard her speak last year about the importance of Copy, and I love her methodology. I’d also love to hear from Ryan Webb, as I think his career has been really interesting, and Mirjam De Klepper, who has some really interesting and important UX insights.
Thank you Georgiana for sharing your journey and insights with the community.
