Building an Optimization Program with Simple’s Tyler Bullen

Crowd at Camp Optimization September 2016

If you ever catch yourself wondering what it takes to establish and manage a successful optimization program look no further than Simple’s Optimization Manager, Tyler Bullen. As the Optimization Manager Tyler handles all of the A/B testing that occurs on Simple’s website, as well as the company’s data analytics. In case you’re unfamiliar with Simple they are a mobile banking app that is specifically designed to help their users save money. They are also quickly revolutionizing the banking industry with innovative technologies, impeccable user experience, and expertise in behavioral economics.

Tyler Bullen - Optimization Manager

The roboboogie team selected Tyler to speak at this month’s Camp Optimization because he has several years of optimization and A/B testing experience under his belt. He also has a clear understanding of the tools, roles, skills, and techniques that’s required to achieve success in this industry. Our team knew from the get-go that Tyler would be the man for the job!

Tyler entitled his presentation, “Tools, Talent and Technique.” Throughout the evening he explained how having background knowledge on these attributes could increase your chances of achieving your optimization goals. Although he touched on several important factors during his presentation here are roboboogie’s top 5 takeaways:

A Marketing Tool Is As Only Good As The Data It Uses.

If you put poor data into a marketing tool you should expect that it would produce those same results. The main idea here is that there isn’t a way to alter poor data.

Don’t Expect Your Data To Be Perfect

It isn’t uncommon for companies to consistently receive data that isn’t perfect. At one point or another you may even discover that the data you’re receiving can be hard to trust. Just remember that if you’re having these issues you’re not alone.

When It Comes To A/B Testing Don’t Give Up.

If you don’t achieve the results that you thought your A/B test would produce don’t be discouraged. There are plenty of other tests you can run. Failures can teach you which direction your test should go.

Test As Much As Possible.

There are number of factors that could be influencing your audience, and it’s up to you to discover what they are responding positively and negatively to. You can test a wide variety of details that range from the entire website, to the actual product itself.

It Takes Humans To Determine How People Are Feeling.

One thing that data can’t reveal is how people are feeling. Sometimes you just need a human touch. You can’t rely on data to give you all the answers.

To conclude the evening Tyler left us all with a quote that summed up his presentation perfectly. The quote was, “good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that of that comes from bad judgment.” The reason he chose this quote was to emphasize that it’s not always a bad idea to let your failures influence your judgment going forward. Over the years Simple has discovered that people who have experienced some type of failure have an easier time connecting with audiences than those who have only experienced success. In the digital marketing world this is an essential skill to have in your arsenal because your job is dependent on your ability to connect with other people.

– ROBBY