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 Shagun Aulakh shares her journey. Shagun is currently Director in Product Management for American Express and her role is focused on building an Experimentation program.
… experimentation is an amazing area to join because it intersects all the most important elements of any organization: marketing, product, analytics, data science, design, engineering, and senior leaders, amongst others, and creates a compelling opportunity to challenge norms and innovate in a smart and diligent way.
Shagun Aulakh
Please introduce yourself to our readers.
I’m Shagun. Marketer turned Experimentation-evangelist! My experience has spanned across many industries, including retail & fashion, B2B SaaS, Health & Wellness, Financial Services and even working within the vendor side of experimentation. My earlier career focused primarily within digital marketing and as I’ve gained more experience with Experimentation, I’ve pivoted my journey to go deep in this function which has allowed me to spread into new functions like product development.
What is your current experimentation role and what do you do?
I’m currently a Director in Product Management for American Express. My role is focused on building an Experimentation program within the Product function, which also currently includes building a platform internally.
How did you enter the experimentation space? What was your first experimentation related role? Share your origin story here.
I sort of fell into Experimentation. Prior, my career was focused on digital marketing and experimentation wasn’t really a “thing” yet. A previous colleague reached out and suggested that I look into an interesting role at Macy’s (a US-based department store) that opened up this new and emerging team called “Experimentation”. I was intrigued, so I applied without really knowing what it was or what I was getting into. Since the position was organized within the marketing department, my marketing skills and experience working with analytical teams came to my advantage and I think that was why I was hired. My job was ultimately a strategist, figuring out how to take an incubator-style team and evolve it to create a more data-driven culture by embedding it as a practice across the company to drive digital experience decisions.. My role was hyper focused on strategy and governance to build a program, rather than a traditional practitioner setting up and launching experiments hands-on.
How did you start to learn experimentation?
I essentially learned on the job. At my first role, I was very fortunate to work with some incredibly intelligent and amazing thought-partners who sat in an Experimentation Data Science and Statistics role, and an individual who worked in Experimentation Platform technology. They taught me almost everything about experiment design, analysis and execution. Aside from them, I spent a lot of time reading articles, blogs, books and attending training sessions from our platform vendor. Last but not least, I had one of the best managers who helped me foster skills in organization and change management which was critical to creating a “culture” of experimentation, and probably the hardest skill-set to master.
How do you apply experimentation in your personal life? (what are you tinkering with or always optimizing?)
I guess today I am “experimenting” with how to have a healthier lifestyle and meet some fitness goals I’ve had for myself but haven’t been successful in achieving so far. I’ve been testing and trying new ways to exercise. I tried out heavier cardio workouts vs. weight lifting, and now trying out HIIT style training. I’ve also tested personal trainers, and am deciding if I can make the same or better progress with an online/virtual trainer versus an in-person trainer. Honestly, this is way harder than traditional A/B testing on websites!
What are you currently doing to keep up with the ever-changing industry?
It’s difficult because the industry changes so quickly. But to keep up, I rely on vendors that are leading in the experimentation space who often share really insightful information via articles & webinars, and create forums such as the Growth Marketing Summit, where I can meet with like-minded folks in the industry. Additionally, as I’ve gained more tenure in this space, I’ve had past colleagues and coworkers that I keep connected to who often share some real experience from the experimentation battlefield.
What recommendations would you give to someone who is looking to join the experimentation industry and get their first full-time position?
Firstly, let me say that experimentation is an amazing area to join because it intersects all the most important elements of any organization: marketing, product, analytics, data science, design, engineering, and senior leaders, amongst others, and creates a compelling opportunity to challenge norms and innovate in a smart and diligent way. I think Experimentation can span different facets and every organization approaches it differently. Sometimes, it sits in an analytics org and in others, in engineering. Or for me, I found roles that sat within more business-driven functions, like marketing strategy. I think it’s important to figure out where your skills match what functional area so you can tie your experience there. Additionally, consider if you want to join an emerging experimentation team or one that is mature and has been doing it well for years. You will encounter very different challenges in each of those scenarios, so consider where you can contribute best. Lastly, get familiar with the terminology. Roles can be titled in many ways: it can span keywords like Experimentation, Optimization, CRO, Data Science or others. So include them in your job searches. Finally, once you are interviewing, ask questions! This is with any position you interview for, but it’s important to ask how the hiring manager is organizing the team, what resources are available, what problems they are trying to solve for, and what is their vision for Experimentation. This will help you decide if it’s the right mutual fit.
Which developments in experimentation excite you? How do you see the field changing in the next 5 to 10 years? What will stay the same? What’s not going to change in the next ten years?
I hate to sound cliche, but of course AI is exciting to me. I think AI has recently been more focused on content generation, but within experimentation I think AI can bring so much more efficiency and solve challenges that teams often experience, like constrained capacity & bandwidth, what ideas to prioritize, what variations should be included. I think if AI can write your variation code for you that would be amazing! How much time it could save developers and also empower non-technical teams to do more complex experimentation!
In terms of the next 5 to 10 years, it’s hard to say. I would say expect the unexpected. One thing I believe is that experimentation will continue to be a critical piece for business strategy and decision making, but the technology and capabilities that emerge to make it smarter, faster and easier will continue to improve. I expect more and more capabilities and solutions to emerge where experimentation combines with personalization, recommendations, predictive modeling and AI powering deeper insights.
Is there anything people reading this can help you with? Or any parting words?
For me, I think it’s so important that as experimenters we keep connected and network with each other. We face unique challenges in our area of expertise, but also each company is a bit of a snowflake in how they integrate experimentation into their organization. So having a vast network of strategists and practitioners is important to keep us at the top of our knowledge, game and understanding of the space. So my ask is to connect with me. I’ve been doing experimentation for quite some time, but the thing I know for sure is that I don’t know it all. I’m out there figuring things out as I go, just as everyone else is, so having other thought-leaders to bounce ideas and challenge my own assumptions is important to my growth. (One specific shout out for thoughts and help from those who are building internal platforms vs. going 3rd party– this has been a new experience for me, so I’m always looking to hear from those that have been able to do it successfully OR who started on that path and then reversed course to outsource).
Which other experimenters would you love to read an interview by?
Luckily, LinkedIn has offered me the ability to read and learn from a lot of the top thinkers in the space, such as Ronny Kohavi, Lukas Vermeer, Ben Labay, just to name a few. And while it’s always helpful to learn from those who are running world-class experimentation programs, I’m also interested in hearing from those that struggle and are still finding their way through experimentation. I’m a person who loves to learn about companies that are having challenges, and think about these larger systemic issues. So there isn’t a person who specifically comes to mind, but I’d love to learn from a diverse set of experimenters from beginners to experts, those that have overcome and are in heights of success to those that are still figuring out how to do it “successfully”.
Thank you Shagun for sharing your journey and insights with the community.
