Should I Quit My Job? 9 Signs It's Time

And that’s actually pretty great.

None of us will be happy in our careers every day of every year. If that’s what you’re looking for, good luck. But you should find satisfaction in the work you do regularly.

Because as nice as it is to talk about work/life balance, it’s also important to remember just how much of your life is actually spent at work (Spoiler alert: You’ll spend roughly 35% of your waking hours working). Shouldn’t you find contentment during that time?

Here are nine signs it might be time for a new job. They’re not hard-and-fast rules, but they are signals it’s time to consider a new position. Check the pulse on the rest of your life and explore how a new job might make that pulse stronger or weaker.

9 Signs You Should Quit Your Job

1) You’ve Been There More Than 5 Years (And Still Aren't Happy)

If you’ve been at your job for more than five years and are still totally happy, don’t panic. Instead, ask yourself if you’re still building skills, feeling challenged, and being rewarded accordingly. Getting comfortable at a job is one thing, getting complacent is another.

Powerhouse companies like Netflix actually believe job hopping is a good thing. Patty McCord, the former chief talent officer for Netflix, has said, “You build skills faster when changing companies because of the learning curve.”

According to entrepreneur and author Penelope Trunk, the learning curve flattens after about three years. Trunk believes that job hoppers learn faster, make better first impressions, and improve the bottom line quickly because they know they’ll be moving on within a matter of years.

Regardless of whether you’re pounding the pavement for a new job every five years, it’s important to routinely assess whether you’ve reached a growth ceiling in your current role.

2) You’ve Been There Less Than 5 Months

Starting a new job always comes with unique challenges. Maybe you’re not getting along with your boss as well as you thought you would. Or perhaps the daily tasks associated with your role are actually very different from what you discussed during your interview.

Before quitting a job you just started. Ask yourself three things:

Is there anything I can do to make this better?

Try talking to your boss about shifting your job responsibilities to be more in line with your expectations. Or take your boss to coffee and get to know them better.

How will I explain this short tenure to future employers?

Before you quit or start looking for a new job, decide how you’ll explain your short stint at X company to potential employers. Simply saying, “I didn’t like what I was doing” or “I didn’t get along well with my boss” might cause interviewers to pause.

Can and should you give the position more time?

Are you really sure that things won’t get better? Can you make it to the one-year mark so that you avoid some raised eyebrows on your resume in the future? Ask yourself if the challenges of leaving after a short time are worth the benefits of getting out of a negative work environment ASAP.

3) Your Job is Affecting Your Mood Outside of Work

A recent study found that about three quarters of “the weekend effect” (the increase of your happiness on the weekends) comes from the quality of your workplace.

How happy you are at your job is directly correlated to whether or not you view your boss as a partner and whether you believe you work in a trusting environment, according to the research. If you answer positively to both of those questions, your mid-week mood will more closely match your mood on the weekends.

This is another great area to regularly check in with friends and family about. Ask them if they notice you talking about work with increasing negativity, or if you’re coming home in a frustrated mood more weeks than not. Everyone has bad days, and even bad months, but if the majority of your days are ending under a cloud, it’s time to take control of your life and either adjust your attitude or your job.

4) You’re Not Learning

If you’re not learning from the people around you or solving new problems in your job, it may be time to look for something new.

In today’s fast-moving and competitive job market, it’s important to continually expand your skillset to advance in your career. If you’ve been solving the same problems for a few years, you’re likely not growing too much.

Share your frustrations with your manager and ask if there are ways you can take on more or different responsibilities within your team. Can you grow the headcount you manage or take over the new video initiative your team has been on the verge of implementing for years? If that answer is no or a vague “we’ll see in a few months,” it’s probably time to move on.

5) You’re Not Earning

In 2014, the average raise an employee could expect was 3% of their overall salary, and the actual raise they received was less than 1%. The average raise an employee received when taking a new job, however, was between 10% and 20%.

It’s important to track the monetary growth potential you have at your current company. Sure, you’re likely not going to receive a 20% raise every year you stay at your job. But if you’re not going to receive a similar raise over the course of three to four years, it might be time to look for something new or talk to your boss.

Talking about a raise can be awkward, so do your homework ahead of time to build confidence and a strong case for your argument. Research median salaries in your field on sites like Glassdoor, and adjust numbers for cost of living in your city and state, and for inflation.

6) You Don’t Align with Team or Company Culture

It happens. Maybe your company was acquired or you have a manager you don’t see eye to eye with. Regardless of the cause of the shift, it’s important that you align with the new direction. If you don’t, it can be easy to lose faith in your boss and your company, making it much harder to excel at your job.

If your new manager’s strategy includes buying email lists and spamming them like there’s no tomorrow, it may be time to look for a new position. Talk to your boss and tell them you’re having a difficult time understanding the reasons behind this new direction.

7) Your Company is Change Averse

Is your company tracking MQLs like it’s 1999? Are they unwilling to implement any fresh marketing strategies you suggest? It’s tough, but it might be time to hit the job boards. 

A company that isn’t changing with or leading the industry is one that is likely to stunt your career development and maybe even your professional reputation. If you’re working for a team that refuses to evolve, it’s easy to fall behind on industry trends your peers (and future job competition) are becoming well versed in.

8) You’re Daydreaming About Your Side Hustle

Ah, the side hustle. Maybe you teach a couple of night classes at the local community college. Maybe you offer consulting advice to young entrepreneurs. Or perhaps you make soap out of wood bark in your backyard.

Whatever your side gig, it can be a great way to develop professionally and personally. But what happens when you can’t think about anything but your side hustle? What happens when your day job isn’t satisfying you enough?

This is another time to get really honest with yourself. Poll your close advisors, family, and friends, and get to the bottom of why you’re devoting so much brainpower to your hustle right now. Whether it’s a phase, a funk, or a change you need to make, it’s important that you have enough motivation to bring the best to your day job.

9) It’s Affecting Your Physical Health

Did you develop an ulcer from last year’s Black Friday marketing campaign? Have high blood pressure at 25? If work is so stressful that it’s having a physical manifestation in you, it’s definitely time to reevaluate whether your job -- or even a career in marketing -- is right for you.

No job is worth taking a long-term toll on your body. Start by talking to your boss about the cause of this stress. Ask about lightening your workload, vacation, or even shifting to a less taxing role on the team. If none of that’s possible, it might be time to look for a job that’s less demanding. Acknowledge what your body needs. Own it. And never be ashamed of it.

Leaving your job is a big deal. Make sure that it’s the right choice. Never act too quickly, and be honest with yourself about the motivation behind the move. But whenever possible, choose to work for a place the empowers, challenges, and supports you. That’s a job you’ll never regret taking.

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I Tried These Productivity Hacks for a Month So You Wouldn't Have To

I'm not ashamed to admit that I'm not the most together person in the world.

I eat three meals a day, but one of them is usually takeout. I hit snooze so often it should be considered a nap. And I definitely don't drink enough water. But I imagine I'm not alone.

There are plenty of productive members of society like myself who work and go to school and have fulfilling lives -- those lives just don't always involve waking up at 5 a.m. for morning meditation or listening to stimulating podcasts on their commutes the way so many famed morning routines do.

So here's to the snoozers, the night owls, and the TV binge-watchers. I celebrate you, and I want to help you figure out if any of the most dreadful-sounding productivity hacks will actually work for you.

Over the course of a month, I spent each week trying out a different productivity hack to see if it made me more productive -- in the morning, and throughout the day. Some of these techniques were brand new to me, while others had been feebly attempted (and abandoned) before.

Keep reading for a detailed explanation of why I went on this productivity journey, or skip ahead to the hacks you want to read more about:

• Week One: Eating Breakfast Every Day
• Week Two: Exercising Every Morning
• Week Three: Using the Pomodoro Technique
• Week Four: Freewriting Every Morning

Why I Tried Out Productivity Hacks

I spent a month this summer testing out different productivity hacks as part of a larger initiative my fellow HubSpot Blog team members participated in. Traditionally, during the summer months, we experience a slight dip in traffic due to seasonality -- after all, we want you to enjoy summer vacations away from your email inbox, even if it means missing some of our blog posts.

With that in mind, we decided to take a month to run different experiments and report on the results -- and I decided to devote time to testing out different productivity hacks so I could report on the results to you fine people, our readers.

I spent each week trying out a new hack -- with varied results. Read on to learn more about how I became the most productive woman in the world in just 30 days (just kidding).

4 Productivity Hacks (& Results)

1) Eating Breakfast Every Day

Before the Experiment

Don't get me wrong, I love food. But between the aforementioned snoozing and my lengthy commute time to work, eating breakfast before work was darn near impossible for me.

And by the time I got to work, which was usually slightly later than I wanted for the previously mentioned reasons, I would dive right into my to-do list -- only to find myself ravenous and ready for lunch by 10:30 a.m. Or worse, scarfing down a Pop-Tart to tide myself over until my immediate sugar crash as a direct result of eating said Pop-Tart.

But starting your day with a healthy breakfast can have a huge impact on your productivity. The food we choose throughout the day impacts not only our productivity, but also our moods, focus, and energy. In fact, a study found that the more servings of fruits and vegetables people ate throughout the day, the more engaged, happy, and creative they were.

As it turns out, 31 million Americans (roughly 10% of the population) end up skipping breakfast every day -- probably for reasons like mine. So I committed to a full week of making -- and eating -- a healthy breakfast.

During the Experiment

I quickly realized that changing the way I sleep and get up in the morning would require a lot longer than a month to complete, and I needed a healthy breakfast solution that also didn't take too long once I finally made it into the office.

The solution? Smoothies.

Luckily, HubSpot's Cambridge office has a fully-stocked kitchen with a lot of the materials and equipment needed to make a healthy breakfast. With the help of plant-based protein powder and spinach I brought from home, I was able to quickly make healthy smoothies that were easy to consume and fairly tasty. I can't, however, speak for their appearance:

Look, my smoothie matches my gray desk divider!

Gray smoothies notwithstanding, this was far and away my favorite productivity hack of the experiment.

Results of the Experiment

Ironically, my interest in smoothies was to save time so I could dive right into work, but dedicating time to making and consuming breakfast before I got started with every work day helped me be more productive. I ended up taking a few minutes before getting started to a) enjoy my breakfast, b) surf Twitter without feeling guilty for procrastinating and c) prioritize my day.

Besides the health benefits of eating healthful foods first thing in the morning, I think there's also something to be said for forcing yourself not to dive into work right away and reflect on your priorities. It's easy when you're swamped in to-dos to feel so stressed and overwhelmed that you start working the second your eyes open. But by making breakfast or spending your morning doing something not directly work-related, you can organize your thoughts, prioritize the mounting list of tasks we all have, and enjoy a little "me time" -- and debriefing on which projects and tasks to tackle to make your day as efficient as possible.

There were definitely days when I wanted a Pop-Tart (but I promise, I didn't have one). Also, one day that week, I decided to treat myself to a technically healthy but fairly enormous breakfast at a vegan diner. Delicious? Absolutely. But I also fell into a food coma shortly after and had a less productive day than my smoothie days.

2) Exercising Every Morning

Before the Experiment

For those of you already rolling your eyes, trust me -- I know how you feel. Working out is the worst.

But actually, it's not. Apart from the health benefits we all know and forget as our sneakers collect dust from the corners of our closets -- like decreased risk of chronic disease, weight control, better sleep, and stronger muscles and bones -- it can have a positive impact on your productivity all day.

Regular exercise can improve your memory retention, sharpen your concentration, help you learn faster, make you more creative, and lower stress. I don't know about you, but I wouldn't say no to literally any of those things.

I'm still in the process of recovering from an ankle injury, so I wasn't exercising at all before starting the experiment for a week -- let alone exercising in the morning. Saying I was not excited about trying out this productivity hack was an understatement, but I wanted to do it in the morning to get it out of the way -- and to achieve those promised benefits even sooner.

During the Experiment

I decided to work out using 30-45 minutes Pilates videos every morning -- mostly because I wanted to do something that would be low-impact on my ankle, but partly because I didn't want to actually have to leave my house to get a workout in.

On the first day of testing out this hack, as my alarm went off 45 minutes earlier than normal and I stared at my yoga mat, I said out loud to no one in particular, "I already hate this."

Luckily, I had a supportive family member who got up when I did and motivated me to keep going:

We'll call our workout routine "Pilates with Phil"

Unfortunately, his support waned the longer the workout went on every morning.

Results of the Experiment

As a side effect of exercising and waking up early, I started getting tired and falling asleep much earlier, which definitely made me feel more productive at work. I felt more alert and focused at the start of my day -- having already been awake for a couple of hours -- and I found myself making healthier eating choices (see above) after starting my day off on the right foot. On a few of these days, I didn't even feel the need to drink coffee once I got to my desk!

I'll confess that, halfway through the week, I snoozed through my alarm and worked out in the evening instead -- but it definitely weighed on me as one more item on my to-do list, and getting it done early in the day was far superior.

So, while I don't think I can commit to daily morning exercise, I can confirm that getting up and moving once a day definitely made me feel more alert and relaxed, which lasted for the entire rest of the day.

3) Using the Pomodoro Technique

Before the Experiment

Before I tested out this productivity hack, I was familiar with the concept of blocking off time for specific tasks, as well as blocking off time for breaks, but I wasn't doing it with any particular rhyme or reason.

Simply put, I would totally disregard calendar appointments I'd set for myself and would stay in a groove if I hit one -- until I looked up from my computer, hours later, with bloodshot eyes, wondering what had happened to the rest of my to-do list.

Not exactly easy to follow.

So for the next week of my experiment, I decided to test out the Pomodoro Technique -- and no, it isn't a delicious cooking method as I previously thought. It calls for working in 25-minute bursts with short breaks in between. Once you've completed four Pomodoros (25-minute increments), you could take a longer break before starting work again.

It sounded like a great way to balance the demands of my writing workload writing several blog posts per week in addition to various other meetings and projects.

During the Experiment

I cannot overstate the degree to which this time management method did not work for me.

I downloaded the Pomodoro Technique Chrome extension to remind me of when to start working and to take a break, and I grew to hate that little tomato -- a real shame, since it's one of my favorite fruits/vegetables.

Tomatoes will never be the same.

I really missed being able to get into the groove working on a project -- particularly when it came to writing blog posts, which typically takes more than 25 minutes.

I even tried hacking together my own Pomodoro Technique calendar when I couldn't handle the tomato reminders, but the pop-up calendar reminders irked me even more.

I was in notification hell.

By the Wednesday of the week I started testing out this productivity hack, I was back to my old ways -- and loving it.

Writing blocks, how I missed thee.

Results of the Experiment

The Pomodoro Technique definitely didn't work for me, but I don't think it's the fault of the technique itself -- I think it doesn't work for my particular job requirements, which involve multiple daily deadlines.

When I write blog posts, I don't necessarily need (or want) my time split into 25-minute bursts -- I want to get blog posts out the door so I can get started on the next one.

My very unscientific assumption is that the Pomodoro Technique works better for people working on longer-term projects and daily tasks, rather than deadline-driven bloggers and creators turning things in every day.

4) Freewriting Every Morning

Before the Experiment

When I come home from writing blog posts all day, the last thing I want to do is sit down and write more -- even if it's creative writing on my own.

So when I read that morning freewriting can increase productivity, I was skeptical about whether or not it would work for me -- wouldn't it just be adding more work to my plate?

Before I tested this productivity hack, the closest thing I did that could be called morning freewriting was my morning tweeting. So I decided to try it out for a week.

During the Experiment

I blocked off 30 minutes each morning for freewriting when I got into the office each day and went to work. And let me tell you, it was hard.

It wasn't that I didn't have anything else to write about besides marketing topics for the blog -- it's that I didn't want to write paragraphs. I wanted to write lists.

I'm in the process of moving, and I'm a bridesmaid in two upcoming weddings, and during these 30-minute blocks, I honestly couldn't stop myself from creating list after list of things I needed to do -- like this one:

A Maine wedding without bug spray is a non-starter.

I learned from this experiment that a comfy rug is essential to at-home workouts.

Over the course of the week, I eventually started writing longer pieces with more sentences and fewer bullet points -- and freewriting shifted into journaling.

Results of the Experiment

I don't know that I did freewriting exactly correctly -- technically, it was freelisting. But going through the motion every morning got me in the right mindset to braindump -- which any blogger will tell you is a critical part of the writing process, when you write down any and everything you know about a topic before filling in gaps in knowledge with more research.

As a side-effect of the list-writing, I believe I was a more productive worker by handling and organizing my personal to-dos before getting started on work tasks. It was a lot less stressful knowing I had an organized game plan for calls to make and research to do on my lunch break and during personal time after work too.

There's No Such Thing as "Hacking" Productivity

Like many other things in life, there isn't an easy way out when it comes to working efficiently and successfully at your job every single day. There will be days when you crush your to-do list, and there will be days when you eat Pop-Tarts and get hit with a wicked case of writer's block.

My biggest lesson from this experience was that all hacks aren't created equal -- it's about figuring out how and when you work most productively, and optimizing your strategies from there.

My strategies could still use a little tweaking, and my next big experiment will be trying to change my disastrous sleep habits to kick the snooze button to the curb. But until then, I'll be drinking smoothies, attempting to work out, and avoiding every tomato I come across.

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How to Use Facebook Ads to Enhance Direct Mail Campaigns

Do you want to reach people based on their physical addresses? Have you considered combining Facebook ads with direct mail? In this article, you’ll discover how to create a multichannel marketing campaign using Facebook ads and direct mail. #1: Prepare Your Mailing Data for Upload Into Facebook If you use direct mail, your mailing data [...]

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Instagram Stories for Desktop and Facebook Watch Explored

Welcome to this week’s edition of the Social Media Marketing Talk Show, a news show for marketers who want to stay on the leading edge of social media. On this week’s Social Media Marketing Talk Show with Michael Stelzner, we explore Facebook Watch, Instagram Stories for the desktop and Instagram Galleries updates with Sue B. [...]

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September 02, 2017 at 12:00PM http://bit.ly/2haJ6kb
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How to Create a Content Marketing Strategy for Virtual Reality

Customers are more inclined to engage with or purchase from brands they feel the strongest connection with. This isn't a new development. What is new is the definition of the term “engagement” itself, or more accurately, what defines a customer’s engagement.

For many customers today, an experience is inauthentic if it’s not interactive. Meaning, they have to be able to reach out and feel like they’re grabbing the thing you’re selling, which is a far cry from the days where leaving a comment on a blog post counted as a sufficient interaction.

71% of consumers think a brand that uses virtual reality is forward-thinking. And however you feel about the term “forward-thinking,” one thing is for sure: these brands stand out and gain consumer attention.

Despite what you might think about VR, it's not a completely inaccessible marketing tactic. Creating a content marketing strategy for virtual reality isn’t that different from a normal content marketing strategy, but it requires an understanding of engagement through interactivity.

How to Create a Content Marketing Strategy for VR

Keep Your Existing Audience in Mind

How does your ideal customer consume your content already? Is it through a weekly webinar or Q&A? Or maybe a daily vlog from the CEO’s desk? Whatever content routine you’ve created, you can continue that strategy while incorporating VR technology.

For example, if your primary medium is Facebook video, you can start producing virtual reality content on Facebook Spaces Although Spaces is still in beta, it’s poised to become a Facebook standard in the not-so-distant future. There’s no better time than the present to start thinking of ways to make it benefit your brand.

Does your business have an app? One emerging trend for app-based businesses is to infuse virtual reality content for use with a Samsung or iPhone paired VR headset. Take mega-ticket marketplace Stubhub as an example. They’ve now added a 360 degree virtual reality view to every ticket purchase, allowing customers to see the view from their actual seats.

Screenshot via Recode

These virtual views have been available on Stubhub.com for a while now, but used to be standard (rather than 360 degree) images. Thanks to the incorporation of VR, the brand has enhanced their customer’s existing experience, and helped them better navigate to a purchase.

Just think of how many times you’ve decided against buying tickets because you weren’t sure about the view. Stubhub is effectively solving this problem by tweaking their existing content to enable VR capabilities.

Don't Just Content, Create An Experience

The notion of a content marketing strategy combined with virtual reality might be misleading. After all, virtual reality is not about the content, it’s about the user experience. Thus, your content creation strategy should aim to be immersive for the consumer, giving them an in-depth view at your product offerings.

Store “Walk-Throughs”

Take the customers through your store, showing them your best inventory and product offerings first hand, like Shopify. The e-commerce giant is about to release their all-new thread studio, which is a VR app that will take consumers into a virtual studio to view t-shirt designs and other apparel.

Image via Shopify

Once they’ve mixed and matched colors and found the design that’s best for their project, they are sent to Shopify’s print-on-demand provider, Printful. From here, they can turn their virtual vision into a real-life, tangible product. As brick-and-mortar stores continue to shut their doors, they’ll be replaced by these virtual stores that allow consumers to walk through and browse without leaving the house.

Seek Long Distance Customers -- Yes, Really

Not that you should only seek customers who live far away, but VR will make it easier to craft content to a more widely located buyer pool.

Just think about how VR will transform the home buying process. If you’re a realtor, you’ll be able to take potential buyers through a completely virtual tour of your property. People from around the world can see a home inside and out like they’re visiting in person.

Forbes writes about this in their article about VR in real estate, only they add another possibility to the mix. They posit that realtors would be able to allow their clients the ability to make custom changes to the home through the VR app, helping the user experience become more interactive, and giving clients a clearer vision of what it’d be like to live in the property.

Show Consumers What Products Will Look Like

Giving consumers a visual of what furniture and household items will look like is an important way to encourage them to purchase.

Home improvement giant Lowe’s has already added a VR element that mirrors the home customization idea. Called Holoroom, it takes customers through a model home to provide a look at what the space would look like with their products.

IKEA has been adopting a similar concept for years, in the form of an augmented reality product catalog. They also recently launched an augumented reality app called Ikea Place.

Image via: Architectural Digest

For the record, augmented reality is very similar to virtual reality, only the former layers artificial elements on top of a realistic background whereas the latter generates an entirely artificial environment.

Provide an Emotional Journey

Honor Everywhere provides a virtual reality experience to terminally ill military veterans, allowing them to “visit” the war memorials in Washington D.C. Volunteers are bringing VR headsets into assisted-living centers to give to the veterans and let them enjoy the experience.

Image via WTOP.com

Although there’s nothing quite as unique as this cause, you can still find ways to take customers on an emotional journey through your own VR content.

“Emotional” doesn’t have to mean sadness: think in terms of what your audience is most passionate about and produce content that addresses those areas.

For example, if you’re writing a travel blog that doubles as an affiliate site, your goal is to truly sell the one-of-a-kind experience a customer will feel by purchasing your vacation package. Through the immersiveness of virtual reality, you can take effectively transport them to the beaches of Rio de Janiero, or atop the Eye of London in a millisecond of time.

You can even take a page out of the always adventurous MythBusters’ playbook, and give consumers a first person tour of a wrecked ship that rests in shark-infested waters.

There’s nothing like a swim among sharks to rouse people's’ emotions.

Embrace Your Location

If the goal is to immerse your virtual audience into a new space, then it only makes sense to show them a fun location.

Offer them a virtual tour around your city, show them a famous landmark, take them to a special event. It’s mid-July at the time of this writing, so a San Diego company might want to show their audience around Comic Con -- just an example.

Use Outside Content

Perhaps the most underrated -- or under talked about -- aspect to content marketing is the cultivation of a community of users, many of whom can contribute their own content.

Thanks to tools like Facebook Spaces, Periscope, and now YouTube, your brand can easily integrate user-produced VR videos onto your website.

Reach out to consumers through channels like social media, email marketing campaigns, and calls-to-action on your website.

What to Do as a Content Creator?

Should you overhaul your entire content strategy to make room for virtual reality? For most of us, the answer is no.

But 2017 is the year we should at least start acknowledging its existence, and begin experimenting with it. Content creators should A/B test with and without virtual reality technology, then gauge the user’s response.

Rather than dedicating your entire site to VR, start with individual posts or pages, then begin building as you see fit.

 

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How to Generate Revenue With Your Content

Want to make money from your content? Wondering how a loyal audience can create business opportunities? To explore business models that help publishers generate revenue, I interview Joe Pulizzi. More About This Show The Social Media Marketing podcast is an on-demand talk radio show from Social Media Examiner. It’s designed to help busy marketers, business [...]

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How to Identify Which Experiments to Run

The last time I made an appearance here on the HubSpot Marketing Blog, I wasn’t shy about my love of experiments.

At the same time, I wasn’t shy in my sense that, all too often, they’re conducted for the wrong reasons. We talked about how the purpose of online experiments is to answer questions about how people use your website.

But how do you know which questions to ask? And how do you know whether experiments are even a viable option to answer your questions in the first place? Before you jump in, you need to make sure you know these things.

Not sure where and when you should start? Fear not -- we’re here to help. Let’s get to it.

How to Tell If You Can Run Experiments

Before you come up with experiments to run, you need to make sure you can accurately run them. Experiments should be completely off the table until you have an established online presence and means to track behavior. To do that, you’ll need five things.

1) Traffic

In order to trust that the results of an experiment are unlikely to be influenced by randomness, you need to have a high volume of traffic. Some experiments require larger sample sizes than others -- even hundreds of thousands, in some cases -- but typically, you'll need a minimum of 100 unique page views per day to reach statistical significance within a reasonable amount of time.

2) Goals

In an experiment, your hypothesis is the statement you’re working to prove. But what is it that you’re trying to improve as a result of this test? Those are your key performance indicators (KPIs) -- the quantifiable measures of the experiment’s success. Without those, you have no North Star to guide the purpose of your experiment, or the objectives behind it.

3) Tracking

In order to measure and observe the performance and results of your experiment groups, you’ll need to establish which data you’ll be tracking and monitoring. In the digital realm, that might include factors like:

• Which pages are people visiting?
• Where did they come from?
• What are they doing once they arrive at those pages? Are they converting, bouncing, or taking another action?

4) Baseline Metrics

Even if you’re hoping to make improvements to your funnel, before you start an experiment, you should have an established, recorded funnel conversion rate (CVR). In other words, before you begin, you should be able to track:

Funnel visit -> retained customer

If you try to start an experiment without that information, you’ll have no benchmark to compare where you were prior to running it -- and therefore, you won’t know if you’re any better or worse off as a result.

5) You’ve picked all of the low-hanging fruit.

Make sure you’ve fully built out and iterated on all of the basic requirements for your funnel to work or even operate correctly. For example, in the ecommerce sector, you might want to do something like optimize your online product catalogue. But you can’t do so until you’ve made sure every product is listed there, you have a complete online checkout system, and have a way for visitors to contact you for customer service.

We have a phrase for this step: “Don’t start hanging up pictures before you paint the walls.”

How Do I Know If I Have These Five Things?

If you find yourself asking that question, we recommend running an A/A test -- an experiment where you go through all the motions of running and tracking an experiment, without actually changing anything. We do this in three steps:

1. Run the dummy test for five business days.
2. Take the test down.
3. Analyze the results.
   • Do you have 500+ unique users enrolled in the experiment?
   • Can you track both experiment groups full funnel?
   • Is funnel CVR about equal for both experiment groups?

So, do you have those five things? Nice job -- you’re already ahead of the curve. But experimentation still only makes sense when you can identify questions worth answering through quantitative research.

Identifying experiments

First things first, you need to pick a funnel that you want to optimize through experimentation. Once you have your funnel, identify the unanswered questions you have about how your audience moves between its stages. To identify unanswered questions, we need to take stock of what we already know.

Identifying who moves through your funnel, and why

Do you know exactly who’s entering the funnel and from where, with quantitative and qualitative data to back it up? How about why they’re entering the funnel, with the same supporting data? If you don't know the answers to these questions, this is where you should start.

Next, if you look at your funnel, can you figure out why people aren’t converting between steps?

Source: Apolline Adiju

Identifying knowledge gaps for how people move through your funnel

Let’s look at the following conversion:

Basic visit > purchase

Our goal is to identify why people do not convert between steps in our funnel. To find out, we need to list reasons why we think people are not converting, and seek out data to back up our claims. We will know that we have listed the right reasons when we can account for more than 100% of unconverted users, with supporting data.

• Are people not purchasing because:
• • They have unanswered questions about the product? (Let's say this reason accounts for 5% of non-purchasing users.)
  • They aren’t ready to make a purchase yet? 10% of non-purchasing users
  • They don’t see how the product fits into their lives? 40% of non-purchasing users
  • The product doesn’t align with what they are looking for? 5% of non-purchasing users
  • There are better-priced alternatives? 10% of non-purchasing users
  • There are alternatives with more or better features? 10% of non-purchasing users
  • They lack confidence in the product or the company that sells it? 30% of non-purchasing users

Note: These percentages total >100% -- each given user often has multiple reasons for deciding not to purchase.

If you find that you're struggling to put together a list of reasons as to why people don't convert, you'll need to gather qualitative feedback from your customers.

Once you've put together a thorough list, take a step back and look for areas of opportunity. For example, on the list above, hone in on, "They don't see how the product fits into their lives," and ask, "Why?" Assuming we have product market fit, there must be something we don't understand here. Otherwise, how can 40% of non-purchasing users be unable to see themselves using the product? It could become a fundamental question that we aim to answer through quantitative experimentation.

To boil it down: Experiments answer questions. To identify experiments, you need to identify gaps in your knowledge, and to do that, list what you do know -- that will help you more easily identify what you don't.

Next Steps

We hope that this post has provided you with the tools to identify when you should run experiments. In my next post, we'll get into ways you can discover the unanswered questions about your funnel, and prioritize those questions to maximize your investment in a given experiment. Plus, we'll provide a helpful framework for doing so.

How do you identify which experiments to run? Let us know your approach -- and hey, we might even feature your experiment on our blog.

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