The paradoxical pursuit of perfect: How (and why) I split test everything
You think it's perfect. Sorry to break it to you; it's not.
You have a nice website, a great email sequence, or a solid conversion funnel perhaps...
But how do you know you're not leaving money on the table?
How can you be so sure?
The gut can be deceiving.
As Patrick Bateman, once famously put it.
You can always be thinner, look better.
Hypothetically speaking, of course...
If there's anything I've learned over the past 10+ years in digital marketing, it's basically this;
- The gut develops a strong, accurate internal compass over time (It's even an Amazon leadership principle)
- The gut can absolutely still be wrong — no matter how smart you think you are
In the end, it shouldn't matter who's right or wrong.
Truth should be paramount.
That said, you shouldn't believe what I or anyone else tells you. Quite frankly, you should only follow the facts (whatever that might mean). Which is why split test everything, because numbers don't lie.
"Men lie, women lie, numbers don't.” - Jay Z
I split test & cross-analyze everything; and I am not kidding.
I've worn the exact same outfit (head-to-toe) every single day, for the past 3 and odd years.
Bathe with the exact same soap, and scrub using exact same style carefully selected wash cloths. I also make sure to hand-wash my face using a hydrating cream-to-foam cleanser that I've (very carefully) selected after trying dozens of different ones (there's a spreadsheet, for science of course).
I split tested roughly 20 garments before I found the perfect tailored black suprima cotton t-shirt. I did the same thing with everything else I wear, including my underwear of choice (3" inseam trunks, also in black) and socks (white no-shows, to match the white handcrafted Italian full-grain leather sneakers I will keep ordering & wearing until I die).
I also own 16 of the same pair of glasses. Because I've tried them all, and these suit my facial bone structure best. I break them often, too.
None of this is particularly expensive ($14 shirts, $30 prescription glasses), far from it.
But I've relentlessly looked for (and found) what works for me.
There's a million different shirts I could buy; almost all of them look nearly identical.
But I need the 'perfect' one.
I'm highly regimented for this reason, and (almost robotically) double / triple down on what works. Whether it's a high quality t-shirt, or a winning perfectly executed marketing strategy.
I start my day in the exact same way, too. But I won't bore you with all those details.
I've started my days in thousands of different ways, and found what delivers the most productivity for me.
No guessing, no bad days.
Success leaves clues; I'm not perfect at all, nor am I done learning, but I've found a few.
Controlled chaos
I've worked with high-growth technology companies for most of my professional life, it can be a beautiful, chaotic mess.
It makes my heart sing, and I truly live for it. There's beauty in the chaos of it all.
That said, within the lens of what I can control, not many things I do are accidental, unplanned or without explanation (I know, I sound incredibly fun at parties...)
Don't take my word for it, though. Talk is cheap. Look below at some of my personal notes I've made public just for this blog post (notes that I use to cross-analyze literally everything to find the 'perfect' thing, such as my backpack of choice).
From the gym I go to, the paddleboard I own, my keyboard of chioce... The list goes on.
This experimentation continues to be true for my online projects, by the way. I'm constantly split-testing layouts & variations in copy to find the best possible way forward using tools like Google Optimize.
Colors, copy, layouts, designs, features, etcetera.
I start with what my gut tells me to do (which has developed profoundly over 10 years of essentially owning my own sandbox environment), and I constantly iterate from there using basic or advanced experimentation tools (A/B / multivariate testing and the likes).
Pareto Principle — It's not enough to be busy
80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes
"With my desire to improve everything, I destroy the moment." - Naval Ravikant
At the end of the day, let's keep it real...
This isn't Hollywood.
I'm still just a guy trying to solve problems. There's nothing particularly special about what I do, except that I've found that it works tremendously well for me. And well, people seem to like it, too.
I will say, though; there's something to be said about analysis paralysis...
Distracting yourself from the 'real' work by overly-perfecting miscellaneous details, getting nowhere fast in the process.
I split test almost everything, and you probably should too...
Because as individuals, our default state of consciousness is almost always to assume we're correct about things we believe to be true (and we'll almost never consciously admit this as fact).
I'm no different, really. I could be completely wrong about what I'm saying, all of it.
I mean, not to talk religion or politics (I strongly refuse to), but think about it; there are deeply devout Christians who are both far left Democrats, and far right Republicans. Both of them probably love Jesus (a lot), yet are somehow strongly convinced that thy neighbor is wrong and evil, in spite of their similar (if not identical) religious convictions.
I'm not here to tell you who's right and who's wrong. What do I know, I'm just a chimp with an iPhone. But we can at least admit that this is at the very least, a hilariously strange phenomenon.
Anyway. find ways to validate your ideas, convictions, views, features, landing pages, meta data, etc.
But remember, there's a caveat to it all. Don't get lost in the process. Remember the why behind the what.
Disassociate from your need to be right. Focus on the facts, and split test almost everything.
You, and everyone else around you, will probably be better off for it.
