Passionate about helping businesses grow through smart conversion optimisation strategies.

6+ years experience in CRO, from deep-dive analytics to cutting-edge experimentation.

I believe in moving beyond just basic A/B testing and leveraging server-side experiments, MVT, MABs,  personalisation, social proof, and product recommendations to truly delight customers. 

Let's connect and explore how I can help you achieve your goals!

Heading to London for a strategy/planning lunch with Sam Hossack and Michael Duke of Outsee Analytics.

By the way, have you checked out their benchmarks? A great resource as you look to your 2026 planning.

Chris Hood

Stop Guessing, Start Testing: The Ultimate Toolkit Awaits

Financial forms are a minefield 💣 

Your users find them inherently stressful: they are very conscious about inadvertently providing the wrong information, fearing future repercussions if the numbers they have provided are found to be incorrect

So you only make it worse if:

1. The fields on your form lack clarity
2. You introduce too much mental gymnastics

Case in point in this deep-dive with the Autotrader Car Leasing form Adam Winsland and I conducted a couple of weeks ago:

⚠️ The income field asks for MONTHLY salary after tax- does this just mean income tax, NI deductions? Any extras like student loan? Is it essentially what you receive in your account monthly after deductions? 

⚠️ Then the form asks for ANNUAL household income - switching from monthly to annually in the same step is a recipe for user error

⚠️ The previous step asks for your ANNUAL employment income from your main job - you see how the gymnastics are kicking in now...

⚠️ No warning given to needing a HOUSEHOLD income - you then need to ask your partner for their income if applicable. The user will likely need to leave the form to get the required info before then can proceed

⚠️ Why do you need the household income? Is your partner on the hook for the loan/lease if you miss payments? 

All of this leads to more questions than answers and more obstacles than smooth progress. All of these issues combined increase user stress, confusion, errors and hugely increase the likelihood of abandonment.

And it's pretty simple to fix: conduct some user research and collect quantitative and qualitative data that will show you the pitfalls, understand the pain points.  You can then get a copywriter to help you communicate better, perhaps change the information requested if you can, and test test test!

Otherwise you are your own worst enemy when it comes to abandonment and costly errors down the line.

Have you seen any better (or worse) examples of financial forms? How did they tackle these issues? Leave a comment 👇 

Webtrends Optimize 🤝 Zuko Analytics

Please share far and wide - my wife is looking for a new role post-Maternity Leave to fit around nursery.

Since not being able to return to her previous role (due to not having enough nursery space available locally to meet the required hours) it has been difficult to find the right role.

Psychological Wellbeing Practitioner

Hi everyone! I’m seeking a new role and would appreciate your support. If you hear of any opportunities or just want to catch up, please send me a message or comment below. I’d love to reconnect. #OpenToWork

About me & what I’m looking for:
💼 I’m looking for a part time Psychological Wellbeing Practitioner role.
🌎 I’m open to roles in Norfolk or remote working. 
⭐ I’ve previously worked at Norfolk Primary Care and Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust.

Multistep form? Bit long winded with a ton of mandatory, mind numbing information?

One of the biggest recommendations we can give is to manage your users' expectations BEFORE they start the form.

How can you do this? One of the best ways, and ironically one of the less common features of heavy going webforms is a "What you will need"-type infobox

Adam Winsland and I sat down last Friday and got into the weeds of the Autotrader Leasing application form. Editing is still work in progress but here is the beginning of the journey, and perhaps one of the most crucial- see what we had to say about it

PS. excuse the occasional subtitle fails, Canva doesn't understand Essex boys, or those from the North

More to come...

Zuko Analytics 🤝 Webtrends Optimize

"I was very happy to see VWO get sold the first time, as with Statsig's $100M series C and other movement in our space.

First and foremost, it feels like the world still values what we do and wants to try and build something special. And that's great news for Webtrends Optimize too.

As a competitive product to the aforementioned, disruption has always been a good thing for us. Whether it's Maxymiser, Monetate, or these changes, acquisition and disruption usually means platform progress stalls in favour of integrations and large structural changes. And where we're moving very fast, we get time to create a functional gap.

Next, fewer fish in the same pond means less competition. It's easy to believe that AB Tasty is a core driver of VWO's push into Enterprise. That change moves two of our most frequent competitors out of the field. There is still very much a place in the world for a reasonably priced experimentation platform, with a solid WYSIWYG, good reporting etc. The world hasn't moved on from this need and if anything, it's grown."

Webtrends Optimize - Head of Product

🚨 Industry alert – VWO owners buy AB Tasty

If you haven't heard by now, Everstone Capital (owners of Wingify and best known for VWO) has bought a controlling stake in AB Tasty, effectively meaning VWO is merging with AB Tasty.

So what do we know and what does it mean for the digital optimisation industry? Read more in my latest blog: https://lnkd.in/eDmnFpW5

Sometimes I wonder how much our competitors are spending on marketing when they can afford to hit every one of the YouTube videos I watch with an ad...and then I think about how much that adds to the price the customer pays...

Come on then CRO community - what's your take on the implementation here?

Business spent $40,000 on a new Shopify theme.

In 24 months time, no one will see it...because of agentic commerce. Do people really believe this rubbish?

🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️

I love the fact that LinkedIn locks down some features as 'Premium', even though I actually have Premium through our Sales Navigator subscription 🤦‍♂️

This is where it ends everyone!

SEC Form S-1.  You need it to go public in the US.  It's the form that opens up your financial data to the world, and it's the thing that killed WeWork.

It is also going to be the thing that I think mortally damages OpenAI and starts the bursting of the AI bubble.

I could be wrong, and the finances are much better than some analysts anticipate, but a company burning through funding rounds at the pace that OpenAI are doesn't suggest a healthy balance sheet or P&L.

If OpenAI goes, CoreWeave goes, Oracle is severely wounded, Nvidia's stock price takes a tumble, and so does the S&P500.  

You then ask the question - why do this?  Why open yourself up to the scrutiny of an IPO?  Is it because it's the only way that the founders and investors can think of to get some of their money back from the pit?

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