Most A/B Tests Fail Because You Skipped Research
Random A/B tests have a roughly 5% win rate. Research-led tests run by mature CRO programs win 30 to 40%. Here is the difference.
Why Random Testing Fails
A button color test or headline swap with no underlying hypothesis is a coin flip. Most teams stop running tests after a string of inconclusive results.
The Research Stack
1. Quantitative: Google Analytics funnel reports, heatmaps, session recordings, conversion rate by device and browser.
2. Qualitative: customer surveys, on-site polls, support ticket review, sales call review.
3. Heuristic: usability audit against documented principles.
4. Competitor: feature and UX gap analysis.
How To Build A Test Hypothesis
"Because of [observed pattern from research], if we [change X], we expect [outcome Y] which we will measure via [metric Z]." If you cannot complete that sentence, do more research.