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 Erik van Houwelingen shares his journey. You can contact Erik via his LinkedIn.
Allow as many people as possible to do good experiments, autonomously if possible. This gives all kinds of struggles but the rewards are huge.
Erik van Houwelingen
Please introduce yourself to our readers
Hi everyone! My name is Erik van Houwelingen and I live in the beautiful city of Amersfoort in the Netherlands. I don’t think I’m a hardcore optimizer. But still, when I see people push a door which clearly says ‘pull’ on it I always wonder if the facility department could measure how often that happens. And maybe even lower that number with more intuitive signing. A lot of readers can probably relate to that.
What is your current experimentation role and what do you do?
My current role is as manager of a team of online specialists with different expertises. CRO, CX, (technical) web analytics, SEO and content marketing. The goal of the team is to optimize certain channels for customers by the use of data and experiments. And because I think data driven optimization really should be everybody’s job, maybe the more important task for my team is to help others to do this. More and better every day.
So for instance, one of the goals for CRO in 2023 (and for the foreseeable future) is to further democratize A/B-testing. Enabling as many people and departments as possible to do autonomous A/B-testing. And doing it right methodologically.
Another example is keyword analysis. A SEO specialist on its own has limited effect. Therefore it’s important to spread a skill like keyword analysis. Or at least convince people of the value. Keyword analysis tells you something about what your customers want, how good you’re doing at that and who your competitors are. This should be something not only the SEO wants.
My part in this is to challenge and support the team and make sure there’s a good foundation in terms of tools, skills and organization.
How did you enter the experimentation space? What was your first experimentation-related role?
My first role was as a web analyst at one of the biggest Dutch online pure players (at that time) called Wehkamp. We were very good at measuring our online activities in great detail, with a lot of analytics firepower (tooling and people), which was quite progressive for that time (2008). But still the impact of the data team itself was limited because capabilities like CRO, UX/CX and experimentation were not part of this team.
In 2014 I made the switch to Intergamma, the #1 DIY retailer in the Benelux. It was a step back in the quality of web analytics infrastructure. But I was in a situation to help build the digital environment for the years to come. Two things were important for me. One: web analytics should be part of the work for everybody who ‘does things online’. An email marketeer should analyze emails autonomously. An ecommerce shop manager analyses filter behavior. And so on. Two: data (analysis) is primarily used to optimize stuff, not to make reports. This brought me into the realm of CRO without knowing about CRO as a field of expertise (if it was already there in 2014 anyway?). I knew about A/B-testing, so we started doing that, with an agency. Not for the sake of A/B-testing, but to improve our important page templates.
How did you start to learn experimentation?
Almost entirely by just doing. You can read books about the topic of (de)centralization of your CRO capability. On the other hand, as your CRO capability evolves you will automatically stumble upon this topic and learn about the pros and cons in practice. Same with client or server side testing. You really have to understand the practical impact and look at how to apply for the best fit in your organization. Of course it helps to read up on a topic you come across, or even better: learn from your peers about how they handle similar challenges. But for me theory supports and not dictates practice.
Side note, I’m the kind of person who throws away user manuals to find out later that it could have been wiser to read something about the electronic device first. When I started with A/B-testing, after a few tests I reckoned it might be good to know in advance what the minimum uplift should be given a certain run time to yield me a significant result. I spent a lot of time building a calculator for this. If I had done some research I would have learned about the concept of MDE and found out some great calculators were already out there ready to use.
How do you apply experimentation in your personal life?
Not afraid to admit: not really. I don’t do atomic habits, power naps, intermittent fasting, mindfulness, meditation, stuff like that. I think I’m quite efficient in nature in how I do things. Wondering about what I could or should do to create a better version of myself gives me stress and I really strive for a low stress personal life. I don’t have the feeling I’m missing something, even when the socials (especially linkedin) show other people excelling in (self) optimization. Self optimization for me happens by striving for increasingly better results and dealing with the challenges I face. In work but also in something like sports.
What are you currently doing to keep up with the ever-changing industry?
For me the biggest driver of experimentation and one of my most important goals is the aforementioned democratization of experimentation. Allow as many people as possible to do good experiments, autonomously if possible. This gives all kinds of struggles but the rewards are huge.
Striving for this we’ll keep stumbling upon new bottlenecks, which can be technology, knowledge, people or organization. To overcome these bottlenecks it helps to contact peers, talk to vendors or agencies, read online or visit a conference. In this way I think we will automatically keep up with the industry. Maybe even be amongst the forerunners.
What recommendations would you give to someone who is looking to join the experimentation industry and get their first full-time position?
Don’t be intimidated. CRO and the CRO community can be quite overwhelming for somebody new. With all the tooling, terminology, statistics, people knowing each other from all those cozy Texel events. But these are all means to an end. Focus on what the purpose of experimentation is. It’s not that complicated. When you start doing this, all the CRO lingo will make sense automatically and will work for you instead of being a deterrent. And if you get stuck somewhere, ask for help. The community might be intimidating, but is in fact really friendly and helpful!
Which developments in experimentation excite you? How do you see the field changing in the next 5 to 10 years?
Have to say AI. In some form. For the near future for content/variation creation, hypothesis finding, data analysis, program management. But the most exciting part for me is the fact that nobody really knows what’s coming after the next 5 or even 10 years from now and how it impacts experimentation, ecommerce and even life in general. Maybe something like our personal AI assistant communicating with a company’s AI? And what part of our lives will become virtual? Current VR might be the MVP for ‘the matrix’. Or are we already in it…?
Is there anything people reading this can help you with? Or any parting words?
Feel free to connect with me to discuss one of those practical challenges we might share.
Thank you Erik for sharing your journey and insights with the community.
