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 Sim Lenz shares his journey. He is the Vice President of Innovation at Conversion.com.
Sim is currently hiring for a Senior Conversion Rate Optimisation (Experimentation) Consultant.
Become obsessed with learning everything you can about experimentation—explore diverse perspectives, critically assess them, and decide who and what to trust.
Sim Lenz
Please introduce yourself to our readers.
I’m Sim Lenz, VP of Innovation at Conversion.com (The world’s largest full-service experimentation agency). I’ve been working in experimentation for more than 10 years and I’m deeply passionate about experimentation and the role I believe it can play in our future. I come from a family of problem solvers—my dad is a ‘tinkerer,’ always exploring and breaking things apart to learn how they work, while my mum is an ‘optimiser,’ constantly refining things to make them better and more efficient. That mix of curiosity and improvement made experimentation feel like the perfect career for me.
What is your current experimentation role and what do you do?
My work is focused on leveraging technology to scale and enhance experimentation programs for our clients. I’ve built and implemented custom tools that help organisations manage, execute, and learn from their experimentation efforts faster and more effectively. I’m incredibly lucky to have my dream job – I like to think of it as meta-experimentation (experiments on the experimentation program).
Conversion is hiring:
How did you enter the experimentation space? What was your first experimentation related role? Share your origin story here.
In my first job as an E-commerce merchandiser at House of Fraser I was given the responsibility to decide which clothing items should be selected for our weekly menswear email newsletter. While others relied on opinion, I researched customer insights and persuasion techniques, using data to justify my decisions. That approach led me to work on one of House of Fraser’s first A/B tests. From that moment, I knew I had to find a role focused on experimentation—leading me to my first experimentation focused job at Amaze.
How did you start to learn experimentation?
At the beginning, I learned everything by obsessing over blogs, webinars, YouTube videos, and books—to the point where I’d spend entire weekend mornings consuming experimentation-related content. But when I joined Conversion.com, my learning accelerated to another level. Being part of a company dedicated to experimentation for 20 years—one that has never stood still, continuously optimising along the way—was transformative for me. More than that, working alongside some of the brightest minds in the industry took my learning to the next level, multiplying it 10x.
How do you apply experimentation in your personal life? (what are you tinkering with or always optimizing?)
Most of my personal optimisations revolve around food—whether it’s testing the best way to cut a cucumber, brew the perfect coffee, or mapping out the ideal pizza dip formula. Recently, I built an automation that converts YouTube food videos into structured ingredient lists and step-by-step methods, making them easier to follow.
What are you currently doing to keep up with the ever-changing industry?
I like to follow a mix of technical experts, business strategists, and top experimentation teams. Some of my most viewed resources include:
- Georgi Georgiev – My go-to for anything statistics
- Netflix, Spotify, Booking etc. – To see how top 1% experimentation teams operate
- Roger Martin – Strategy insights (not specific to A/B testing, but highly applicable)
- Tiago Forte – Knowledge management (again, not directly about A/B testing, but deeply relevant)
What recommendations would you give to someone who is looking to join the experimentation industry and get their first full-time position?
- Become obsessed with learning everything you can about experimentation—explore diverse perspectives, critically assess them, and decide who and what to trust.
- Look for a CRO agency to join, and during your interview, evaluate whether they’re truly doing it right. You’ll gain more experience faster working at an agency, as you’ll be exposed to a variety of industries, websites, and business models.
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?
Experimentation is becoming a key decision-making tool across organisations, and I see this trend accelerating over the next decade. Some key shifts I anticipate:
- People who champion experimentation will rise to positions of influence within their organisations.
- Running experiments to gather the best possible evidence for decision-making will become the norm across all levels of an organisation.
- Meta-experimentation—optimising the experimentation process itself—will become widely adopted.
Is there anything people reading this can help you with? Or any parting words?
I’d love to speak to anyone who is passionate about experimentation and wants to share ideas and thoughts – if you ever feel like reaching out on LinkedIn @simlenz
Which other experimenters would you love to read an interview by?
I’d love to hear from experts outside the experimentation industry who use frameworks that could be applied to it. An interview with Roger Martin or Tiago Forte on experimentation would be fascinating.
Thank you Sim for sharing your journey and insights.
Conversion is hiring:
