7 ms·

I never seen an A/B test where the goal was not to maximise profit for the company.

dotecoffee 4y ago
Have you ever seen "you've already bought this" on Amazon? Highly tested, reduced sales. Overruled by judgement. Stayed on the site. AB test results don't mean you leave your judgement behind.
- iudqnolq 4y ago
  Maybe. I find that very useful when I'm trying to buy the same thing again. It acts as a trust marker. I do wish they kept better historic purchase data. I assume it's deleted absurdly quickly for compliance?
  - account42 4y ago
    Huh, Amazon keeps years of order history for me and you can't even remove it, just "hide" orders which will then still be available just with an extra step. And I'm in the EU so no idea where else they would have more compliance problems with that.
costcofries 4y ago
That's probably intentional and a sign that it was a well designed A/B test :)
koheripbal 4y ago
This comment is way too broad and cynical. It reminds me of the sentiment I sometimes hear from my teenage children before I explain to them that the world isn't a Bernie Sander/Reddit gotcha soundbite and that reality is complicated.
- ThalesX 4y ago
  What would the other advantages of A|B testing be for a corporation instead of widening the funnel, increasting lifetime revenue or other such bottom-line focused goals?
  - throwaway98797 4y ago
    you can genuinely find out what message makes more sense. explaining what your product does is hard when you’re the product expert. A/b testing ad copy helps folks parse what your product does. If your product is actually good then having more people understand what it is, is also good.
    - dvtrn 4y ago
      And all of that amounts to what if no one decides to cough up money to use your product?
  - notriddle 4y ago
    Assuming you aren’t running a charity, increasing the bottom line is always your goal. The difference between a company that burns user goodwill in the process, and one that doesn’t, is the difference between short-term and long-term thinking. The downside with hired testers is that they are unlikely to be a statistically representative sample of your target market. I don’t think this is actually a problem for most startups or new products being launched by major players, since a lot of UX issues early in product development will be obvious to anyone who isn’t the original developers, and the number of actual users you have won’t be big enough to serve as a statistically representative sample of your target market anyway.
- pessimizer 4y ago
  "Reality is complicated" is often a way to rationalize "I'm going to do it how I've always done it, regardless of how it looks."
- skupig 4y ago
  Let me be even broader and more cynical: everything a company does is ultimately to maximize profit.
  - bcrosby95 4y ago
    Seems like saying no one is actually altruistic because they get good feelings from helping people.
- jen20 4y ago
  > This comment is way too broad and cynical Or, as anyone who has been on the internet since the 90s will tell you, bang on the damn money.
mattnewton 4y ago
Over what time horizon? You should optimize short term metrics (for feasibility) that are (as best you can approximate) the cause of long term profits. The profits part is what makes it the business, using metrics for decisions are what makes it an A/B test. I think where people run into trouble is when they are optimizing only for this quarter’s revenue directly because long term value is too hard to measure.
bentcorner 4y ago
What would an A/B test where the goal was not to maximize profit even look like? The very act of creating an A/B test is because the worker wants to improve something in search of higher profits.
adrr 4y ago
Isn't that any goal of an organization? Everything ladders up to the success of the company. Especially if you're a corporation where you have fiduciary responsibility to the shareholders. AB testing is beyond UI. It could be AB testing algorithms for recommendations or search results. When i worked for a CPG company, we would AB test the sample sizes in the boxes. To answer the question what is right amount of product for a sample. We would test shipping to speed, was it worth the upgrade to expedited shipping in terms of LTV to justify the extra cost.
mcrad 4y ago
Oh yeah? I've never seen a marketing department with a decent understanding of microeconomics. Most in fact are trying to maximize budget ie. expense.

Have you ever seen "you've already bought this" on Amazon? Highly tested, reduced sales. Overruled by judgement. Stayed on the site. AB test results don't mean you leave your judgement behind.

iudqnolq 4y ago
Maybe. I find that very useful when I'm trying to buy the same thing again. It acts as a trust marker. I do wish they kept better historic purchase data. I assume it's deleted absurdly quickly for compliance?
- account42 4y ago
  Huh, Amazon keeps years of order history for me and you can't even remove it, just "hide" orders which will then still be available just with an extra step. And I'm in the EU so no idea where else they would have more compliance problems with that.

costcofries 4y ago

That's probably intentional and a sign that it was a well designed A/B test :)

koheripbal 4y ago

This comment is way too broad and cynical. It reminds me of the sentiment I sometimes hear from my teenage children before I explain to them that the world isn't a Bernie Sander/Reddit gotcha soundbite and that reality is complicated.

ThalesX 4y ago
What would the other advantages of A|B testing be for a corporation instead of widening the funnel, increasting lifetime revenue or other such bottom-line focused goals?
- throwaway98797 4y ago
  you can genuinely find out what message makes more sense. explaining what your product does is hard when you’re the product expert. A/b testing ad copy helps folks parse what your product does. If your product is actually good then having more people understand what it is, is also good.
  - dvtrn 4y ago
    And all of that amounts to what if no one decides to cough up money to use your product?
- notriddle 4y ago
  Assuming you aren’t running a charity, increasing the bottom line is always your goal. The difference between a company that burns user goodwill in the process, and one that doesn’t, is the difference between short-term and long-term thinking. The downside with hired testers is that they are unlikely to be a statistically representative sample of your target market. I don’t think this is actually a problem for most startups or new products being launched by major players, since a lot of UX issues early in product development will be obvious to anyone who isn’t the original developers, and the number of actual users you have won’t be big enough to serve as a statistically representative sample of your target market anyway.
pessimizer 4y ago
"Reality is complicated" is often a way to rationalize "I'm going to do it how I've always done it, regardless of how it looks."
skupig 4y ago
Let me be even broader and more cynical: everything a company does is ultimately to maximize profit.
- bcrosby95 4y ago
  Seems like saying no one is actually altruistic because they get good feelings from helping people.
jen20 4y ago
> This comment is way too broad and cynical Or, as anyone who has been on the internet since the 90s will tell you, bang on the damn money.

mattnewton 4y ago

Over what time horizon? You should optimize short term metrics (for feasibility) that are (as best you can approximate) the cause of long term profits. The profits part is what makes it the business, using metrics for decisions are what makes it an A/B test. I think where people run into trouble is when they are optimizing only for this quarter’s revenue directly because long term value is too hard to measure.

bentcorner 4y ago

What would an A/B test where the goal was not to maximize profit even look like? The very act of creating an A/B test is because the worker wants to improve something in search of higher profits.

adrr 4y ago

Isn't that any goal of an organization? Everything ladders up to the success of the company. Especially if you're a corporation where you have fiduciary responsibility to the shareholders. AB testing is beyond UI. It could be AB testing algorithms for recommendations or search results. When i worked for a CPG company, we would AB test the sample sizes in the boxes. To answer the question what is right amount of product for a sample. We would test shipping to speed, was it worth the upgrade to expedited shipping in terms of LTV to justify the extra cost.

mcrad 4y ago

Oh yeah? I've never seen a marketing department with a decent understanding of microeconomics. Most in fact are trying to maximize budget ie. expense.