How to Track and Analyze Experiments in Optimizely

The Journey Begins: A Strange Quest into the Realm of Testing

Let me take you back to a day that began with a simple thought and—like most of our greatest adventures—fueled by more caffeine than I care to admit. It was a gray morning in San Francisco, and we were huddled around a small round table, our laptops like shields against the chaos of the startup world. The idea of 'experimentation' was thrown around like confetti at a particularly poorly attended parade.

"Let's test everything!" shouted Jim, our most enthusiastic developer, who always seemed to see the digital world as his sandbox. That day, something clicked. We decided it was time to delve into Optimizely, not just to test, but to truly analyze. Little did we know, the journey would demand more than just our technological savvy; it would require a camaraderie of minds and emotions.

Embracing the Chaos: Getting Started with Optimizely

First steps are almost poetic in their simplicity. Yet, in our case, it was more like dancing on a tightrope of excitement and ignorance. We signed up for Optimizely, eagerly filling out every field with the fervor of kids on their first day of school.

Optimizely greeted us with a dashboard that evoked both wonder and mild terror—a universe waiting to be explored. On that screen, we saw our future missions: create experiments, track results, shout Eureka!

Setting Up Your First Experiment:

Log in to Optimizely. If creating your account is giving you existential dread, embrace it. We're in this together.
Click on the 'Create Experiment' button. It’s bold and bright, like a call to adventure.
Choose your type of experiment: A/B test? Multivariate? The world—or at least this platform—is your oyster.
Input your variables. We chose something simple at first: the color of that 'Buy Now' button. Jim wanted a rainbow option, but cooler heads prevailed.
Define your audience. I like to imagine them as guests at a party—who do we want to wow with our revelations?
Set goals. Or, as I prefer to call them, 'Milestones on the Road to Glory.'

This process took longer than expected, mainly due to debates over button shades more intense than deciding baby names—who knew red could have fifty shades?

Data, Sweet Data: Tracking Results Like Pros

Ah, data. It’s like a good science movie: exhilarating, daunting, and oddly comforting when everything fits into place. Once our experiment was live, the real magic began—tracking results.

Tracking Process:

Navigate to the 'Results' page. Take a deep breath. It’s like opening a new book—a world of possibilities.
Dive into metrics. Conversions, clicks, splits—each number resonating like echoes in a cavern. We were storytellers now, piecing together narratives from the world of numbers.
Use filters. These are the detective tools in your investigatory kit. Location, time, device; unravel it all.
Compare. We all love a good competition—our results were no different. We made graphs battle, bar vs. pie, discovering which data told the truth.

I remember Jim, who usually favored blunt solutions like a boulder to a door, spending minutes at a time comparing hourly changes. We were officially data-driven nerds, and it was glorious.

The Wise Old Analysts: Delving into Deep Analysis

Tracking is just the prelude to a symphony of analysis. Here we stood—curious minds at a treasure trove of insights.

Steps for In-depth Analysis:

Set your hypotheses. We're not in the realm of fairy tales; your assumptions must be based on data, not dreams.
Breakdown metrics. Beyond raw numbers: cohort analysis, path explorations—a digital excavation.
Reflect on patterns. If numbers tell a story, patterns are the plot twists that keep it interesting.
Adjust based on findings. There’s no such thing as failure, only lessons learned. When that blue button outperformed expectations, I nearly wept with joy. Or maybe it was exhaustion.

Analyzing required patience, the kind that made Jim—a master of impatience—take unexpected breaks, claiming enlightenment under a tree favored for post-coffee naps.

Proclaiming Victory: Learning from Success and Failure

The final step doesn't seem like a step at all; it feels more like dance. As we reviewed our findings, validating decisions and scrapping others, victory wasn’t just in the data but in the growth we experienced.

Celebrate insights. We were like cryptographers who finally cracked the best kind of code—the human mind.
Share results. It’s a party, not a solitary confinement cell. Bring your team, involve stakeholders, even invite the janitor if they're interested. Input and insights abound from the most unexpected places.
Plan next steps. What next grand query will we solve with the information we now command?

A Bittersweet Parting: Our Optimizely Experience Ends

Reflecting on our journey with Optimizely feels like remembering a summer camp—the camaraderie, the challenges, the laughter. Jim, once a skeptic on leveraging data for the betterment of mankind (and user experience), became an advocate.

In the end, Optimizely became more than a tool; it was an experience, a community, a binder of souls in the pursuit of knowledge. We sometimes felt like digital alchemists, turning leaden lines of code into golden insights.

So, to you, aspiring Optimizely adventurers: embrace the complexity, revel in the chaos, and remember we are all in this grand digital symphony together.

Until our next data dive—keep experimenting and adapting.