Put Two Versions in the Market and See Which One Works Better

How can you become more agile in a fast-moving market? An increasingly popular method of making quick decisions is A/B testing (or bucket testing). In its simplest form you put two versions of a product into the market simultaneously and see which one gets the better customer response. You then repeat the process by putting the winner up against another variant and trying again. Essentially you use a single-variable test several times over. This classic direct mail technique has been used extensively to test website response rates. It is now popular for checking market reactions for a wide range of products and services.

For example with your website you can test elements like colours, offers, copy text, layouts and images. Multiple tests will show which items yield the greatest improvements. According to Wikipedia around two-thirds of web based companies use A/B testing including the likes of Amazon, BBC, Ebay, Google and Microsoft.

You can use A/B testing to carry out market research on the fly. You can test different marketing propositions, website layouts, sales pitches and so on. You can also test different markets with the same product. The key element is to keep undertaking tests in which only one variable is changed.

Paul Sloane writes and speaks on innovation. He is the author of The Leader's Guide to Lateral Thinking Skills.

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