Vanessa Janowski is the co-founder of Vari Solutions, a company that assists growing technology businesses to target areas for improvement, helps them with better understanding their users, and how to develop data solutions to build their company. Vanessa will be joined by Ivy Reyes of Shutterstock, Maisy Samuelson of Pinterest, and Cinna Wu of Facebook to discuss the future of A/B testing. The panel will focus on innovations in back-end testing in how to test prices and search algorithms and use of machine learning to automate testing and drive increasted personalization. The session will take place at the JW Marriott Salon 6 on Saturday, March 10, from 12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m.
Could you tell me about your panel?
We are four tech leaders at a range of different companies (Vari Solutions, Facebook, Shutterstock and Pinterest), and we’ll be talking about A/B testing: what it is, how it can be used to drive key metrics, improve the user experience, or optimize content, and what new developments we see in the field. On a simple level, A/B testing is a way to compare two or more versions of a single variable typically by testing the audience’s response to the variables and determining which of the variables is most effective. A/B Testing is used by many tech and e-commerce companies today to optimize landing pages, checkout flows, and more.
What specific things are you hoping people learn?
We will be addressing front-end testing (things like button colors, copy, etc.) vs server-side, or back-end, testing (bigger revenue drivers like prices, search algorithms, content). While the former is relatively straightforward to do, the latter is a bit more complex. Two of our panelists work at companies that have developed their own platforms for doing this type of testing, one is from a company that is using a third party, and I’m the co-founder of a company that has created a platform focused on enabling more back-end testing. We’re hoping to engage the audience in a discussion around the current state of testing (both positives as well as pitfalls) and where we see the field going over the next few years.
What do you hope the biggest takeaway will be for someone that attends?
I hope the biggest takeaway for the audience is that it’s possible to do all kinds of testing, and the state of A/B testing will continue to evolve as more platforms and technologies become available.
What inspired you to host this panel at SXSW?
I co-founded Vari Solutions with my business partner because we felt there was a gap in the marketplace regarding a platform that enabled testing of key revenue drivers, in particular, prices. As this is a topic of growing interest – particularly how we see A/B testing evolving in light of methods like machine learning, and an increasing interest in personalization – I thought it would be an interesting topic to cover at one of the most diverse and forward-looking technology and interactive conferences in the world.
How did you get interested in this topic?
My background is in data science and product management, and I’ve spent a lot of my career in tech. It’s important for companies to make data-driven decisions, and A/B testing is a big part of that.
Could you tell me a little about yourself?
I’m the Co-Founder of Vari Solutions, a leading business services provider for growing and established technology companies, and the creators of VariTest, an experimentation platform for running A/B tests that affect top-line revenue drivers. I have over ten years of experience in product development, data science and user experience research. Prior to Vari Solutions, I co-led Product at Ladders, a marketplace dedicated to matching job seekers to potential employers. I also led the Global Growth team at Shutterstock, increasing conversion across many user segments and driving international expansion, and influenced the next version of Gmail as Data Scientist at Google. I hold a Ph.D. in Neuroeconomics from Caltech, an MSc in Applicable Mathematics from the London School of Economics, and a B.A. in Economics from Yale. I speak six languages fluently.
Saturday, March 10
12:30 p.m. – 1:30 p.m.
JW Marriott Salon 6
Find out more: Back-End to the Future: A/B Testing What Counts
Featured Image: Pixabay