Lake Wobegon effect: A natural tendency to overestimate one’s capabilities and see oneself as better than others. Psychologists refer to this as self-enhancement bias. Most of us think we’re funnier, smarter, warmer, more honest, or more conscientious than we really are. Lawrence T. White Ph.D
This manifests in eCommerce as “gut feels” or “knowing it will work”. However there is only one opinion that matters — the customers. Unless your goal is to win awards then the vote of the customer, with their wallets, is the only vote that counts. So how do you balance this need with maintaining motivated staff and ensuring you “get it right”?
Two years ago I came up with the mantra of Test Your Way To Change. The status quo is the default and any meaningful change (and its often surprising what innocuous changes are meaningful) must be A/B tested against the status quo. The winner remains or becomes the new status quo.
Simple and a middle ground to allow creative freedom to the designers yet enforce the rigor of data driven decision making that leads to exemplary growth.