Presorted first class mail. It’s the CRO Roundtable Roundup!
Thanks to Matt Beischel, Iqbal Ali, Veronika Morozová, Craig Sullivan, and David Swinstead for joining us. Want to get in on the action and talk with other cool GRO people? Then you should probably…
One Sentence Takeaway
I’m a busy person; give me the TL:DR
Ensuring proper script placement and performance testing is critical to reliable experimentation and improved user experience.
The Notes
What we discussed this week
- A/B Test Tool Performance Impacts
- The problems with using “body blocker” anti-flash CSS injection
- Loading experimentation scripts in head avoids UI flicker
- Performance trade-offs when scripts run early versus deferred
- Measuring impact on first contentful paint
- Render-blocking versus async loading strategies
- Perform web speed testing to confirm the actual impact of test tool scripts
- Vendor responsibility for optimized implementation
- Experimentation Implementation Practices
- Equal performance delay across variants prevents skew
- Archive unused scripts to reduce performance drag
- Avoid hacky anti-flash methods for better stability
- Dealing with reluctance to risk slower page performance
- Conferences and Community Events
- Recent hot topics include AI, growth, and scale experimentation
- Smaller events provide stronger networking opportunities
- Conversion Hotel is a top CRO conference
- Measure Fest and Brighton SEO are also good alternatives
- Pros and cons of long sessions versus short talks
- Professional Travel to Conferences
- Company budgets often restrict conference attendance
- Comparing travel options for convenience and cost
- Getting event organizers to cover costs for speakers
- Maximizing budgets with free tickets
Hey all you cool GRO People!
GRO Talks Live returns to the winter 2025 Experimentation Elite conference with a heaping helping of in-person roundtable sessions, and we want to see you there!
The Quotes
Standout quips from this week
Book Club
Relevant reads recommended this week
No books this week, sorry!
CRO Link Digest
Useful and thought-provoking content shared this week
- ProductLab Conf > – a product-focused event featuring sessions on experimentation, AI, growth strategies, and community-driven innovation, recommended by Veronika Morozová
- AARRR Pirate Metrics Framework – an article from Product Plan about the AARRR acronym; a set of five user-behavior metrics that product-led growth businesses should be tracking
- Conversion Hotel – The leading 3-day event on Evidence-based Growth, survive the wild with other experimenters and optimizers in a friendly and inspiring event set-up
- Measure Fest – A Brighton SEO conference track dedicated to web analytics, conversion rate optimisation & business intelligence
Off-Topic Sidebars
Experimentation isn’t the only thing we talk about at the CRO Roundtable. There’s often a healthy dose of discussion on shared interests, personal passions, and hobbies.
- International Talk Like a Pirate Day
- Being a DJ
- learning new music mixing styles
Sidebar Shareables
Amusing sidebar content shared this week
- International Talk Like a Pirate Day – Wikipedia article about the parodic holiday created in 1995