James Tyler

Product market fit. An idea that gets applied to broadly inside a business. Variant market fit, is a better path to cash optimization.

Dynamically pricing based on available inventory is the only way to scale and manage inventory in any manner that actually maximizes total contribution. Additionally, defending against sold out variants by yielding price up is just as important as reducing prices on overstock. The last hotel room in Vegas on NYE is going to be priced a lot higher than the average daily rate. That's revenue management 101. But for some reason, this hasn't translated to retail yet. Perhaps it's because we can understand that if a room goes unsold, the hotel has lost that money but in retail a unit going unsold is still sitting in a warehouse. But actually, those two things are identical.

We’ve started to build out a solid, lean team for the brand now (over £1m per year per head)- but an area I still spend SO much time on myself is general website/ecom/CRO and that whole piece - I struggle to define what a new hire could look like for this, or if actually a few is needed (probably)? Current setup is an agency to do the design and dev work, but still me to plan, manage & lead on roadmap/direction for website optimisation and design - If I want to remove myself entirely from this and have one direct report here instead, who/which role should I hire, and ideally where from? 🖥️🤔

The best product manager at a startup is often the founder because they are the source of the vision and strategy that determine the company’s future. The same logic applies to CRO. When thinking about hiring for a conversion rate optimization (CRO) role within a smaller e-commerce business, it’s essential to understand that this function is far more than just a set of tactical tasks—it’s the very engine (or should be) that drives the business forward. The individual or team handling this function should not just be executing simple tasks like tweaking landing pages or adding trust badges on checkout pages; they should be integral to the strategic direction and growth of the company. The role of CRO within a business, especially a growing e-commerce operation, should be centered around experimentation that answers critical questions about the business’s future. It’s not just about increasing conversion rates in a vacuum; it’s about using experimentation to test hypotheses that can fundamentally alter the trajectory of the business. The best CRO programs are those that help the company understand and execute on ideas that could potentially double the business, rather than simply optimizing minor aspects like button colors or page layouts. The role, therefore, demands someone who can think strategically about the entire business, not just the website. One pitfall to avoid in hiring for this role is the temptation to offload it entirely to someone who approaches CRO from a purely tactical perspective. This is where businesses can get into trouble. Hiring someone who is focused on superficial metrics—like artificially boosting conversion rates by making some onsite funnel change that doesn’t make it back to any real profit—can distract from the more important, revenue-driving experiments that need to happen. The person you hire should have the ability to look at the big picture and prioritize experiments that have the potential to significantly impact revenue and contribution. This means they need to understand the infrastructure, people, and processes required to answer the biggest questions about the business. For these reasons, the ideal candidate for a CRO role should be someone with a deep understanding of business strategy, revenue growth, and the ability to operationalize insights across the company. They should not only be capable of running experiments but should also be able to translate the outcomes of those experiments into actionable strategies that can be scaled. This could mean finding someone with entrepreneurial experience, or at the very least, someone who has a proven track record of scaling businesses, in addition to running a sophisticated experimentation program. This person should own the revenue outcomes of their experiments, ensuring that their efforts are always aligned with the broader goals of the business. For sure it may be tempting to hire someone to simply “handle” CRO, but it’s crucial to recognize that this function is core to the business’s growth and should be treated as such. The right hire for this role will be more than just a CRO expert—they will be a strategic leader capable of driving the business forward through smart experimentation and a deep understanding of what makes the company tick. Trust badges on a checkout page might slightly increase conversion rates, but what you really need is someone who can help you double your business and operationalize the outcomes of 2x to 10x experiments. The kind of experiment that means you are SPRINTING to order more inventory. That’s the kind of CRO role you should be hiring for.