Testing without a strategy is like sailing without a compass — you're moving, but not necessarily toward your destination.
In our recent webinar Dermalogica's formula for a scalable website testing program, Jason Kahn, Director of Product Management at Webflow, and Vinney Dawson, Senior E-commerce Experience Designer at Dermalogica, revealed how to build a scalable user-centered testing program that actually moves the needle.
Their insights challenge the common approach of running disconnected experiments, instead presenting a framework for user testing at scale that creates compound value over time.
Most teams test reactively, focusing on surface-level changes without understanding their users' deeper motivations. This leads to wasted effort, minimal impact, and teams stuck in a cycle of low-value experiments.
But there's a better way — one that transforms testing from a series of one-off experiments into a strategic driver of business growth.
Start with user motivations
Begin tests with user-centered hypotheses rooted in visitor goals and motivations. To drive meaningful impact, teams should move beyond superficial tweaks and develop experiments based on real user needs, pain points, and journey stages.
“Testing is tough. While many teams are running tests, they often lack a clear strategy. On top of that, testing efforts are sometimes siloed, which makes it harder to be effective,” explains Jason Kahn.
This disconnect between testing efforts and user understanding creates a fundamental gap that limits the potential of even well-resourced programs.
The shift from reactive to strategic testing starts with putting yourself in your users' shoes. Consider these key questions when developing hypotheses:
- What is the user trying to accomplish? Map their primary goal for this specific visit.
- Where are they experiencing friction? Identify pain points through heat mapping and user behavior analysis.
- What motivates them at this stage? Understand whether they're discovering, evaluating, or ready to purchase.
- How does their context affect their needs? Consider device type, traffic source, and previous interactions.
For example, instead of testing button colors, focus on understanding why users abandon their carts. Are they confused about shipping costs? Uncertain about product fit? Missing key information? Your hypothesis should address these fundamental barriers, not just aesthetic preferences.
Dermalogica's team uses heat mapping tools like Microsoft Clarity to identify high-engagement areas and friction points. This data-driven approach to understanding user behavior forms the foundation for hypotheses that create meaningful impact rather than marginal improvements.
Prioritize for maximum impact
Prioritize experiments by potential business impact to focus limited resources on high-value tests. Rather than pursuing every idea, rank hypotheses by how likely they are to move key metrics and allocate effort to those with the greatest ROI.
"Strong testing programs are taking that user understanding and turning it into strategic action, and then they're prioritizing the experiments based on the potential to impact the key business objectives," Jason notes.
This strategic prioritization separates high-performing programs from those stuck in a cycle of low-impact changes.
Creating an effective prioritization framework requires balancing multiple factors, such as:
Business impact assessment:
- Revenue potential: How much could this move the needle on your north star metric?
- Audience reach: What percentage of users will experience this change?
- Strategic alignment: Does this support quarterly or annual business objectives?
Implementation effort evaluation:
- Technical complexity: Can you test with existing tools, or do you need developer resources?
- Time to launch: How quickly can you get from hypothesis to live test?
- Resource requirements: What team members need to be involved?
Learning value consideration:
- Insight potential: Will results inform future tests and strategies?
- Applicability: Can learnings scale across channels or user segments?
- Risk assessment: What's the downside if the test fails?
By focusing on experiments with the highest potential ROI, you maximize both immediate impact and long-term learning.
Dermalogica's approach includes quarterly "hero" initiatives that align testing with broader business goals.
For instance, when exploring AI shopping assistants, they don't just implement a chatbot; they test specific implementations that make it easier for users to find products based on their unique skincare needs.
This prioritization matrix helps teams avoid the common pitfall of running numerous low-impact tests that consume resources without driving meaningful results.
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Build velocity through iteration
View testing as a continuous loop: Run a test, learn, then inform your next test to accelerate velocity. Rather than aiming for volume, use each experiment's findings to refine hypotheses and rapidly iterate through new variations.
"Velocity isn't just about, ‘We ran 55 tests.’ It's about running a test, learning something, and then using that to inform your next test, so you can really make it a continuous loop," emphasizes Jason.
This iterative approach transforms testing from a series of disconnected experiments into a compound learning system.
Building true testing velocity requires three key components:
1. Rapid hypothesis generation:
- Extract insights from customer reviews using AI to identify common themes.
- Mine support tickets for recurring pain points.
- Analyze search queries to understand user language and intent.
- Review session recordings to spot behavioral patterns.
2. Efficient test implementation:
- Use visual editors to launch tests without developer dependencies.
- Create reusable test templates for common scenarios.
- Leverage AI tools to generate test variations and code snippets.
- Implement "predotyping" (testing concepts manually before full automation).
3. Systematic learning extraction:
- Document not just what worked, but why it worked.
- Share insights across teams through quarterly reviews and monthly touchpoints.
- Create playbooks from successful tests for easy replication.
- Use audience insights to identify unexpected winners in specific segments.
Dermalogica exemplifies this approach with their review highlights testing. Vinney started with manual curation to validate the concept, then used AI to extract themes from thousands of reviews, and finally implemented dynamic systems based on what resonated with different user segments.
Each iteration builds upon previous learnings, creating exponential value over time.
The key takeaway is to shorten the gap between learning and application. When insights are applied immediately, teams create a flywheel effect where every test makes the next one smarter and faster.
Transform testing into sustainable growth
Building a scalable, user-centered testing program demands a fundamental shift in how you approach optimization. By starting with genuine user understanding, prioritizing strategically, and building velocity through iteration, you create a testing engine that compounds value over time.
The most successful programs share common characteristics. They:
- Treat every test as a learning opportunity.
- Connect insights across teams and channels.
- Use technology to accelerate, rather than complicate, the process.
Whether you're testing subscription messaging, navigation labels, or AI-powered features, the principles remain the same: Understand your users deeply, test what matters most, and apply learnings systematically.
With Webflow's website experience platform, teams can implement these testing strategies without the traditional barriers of developer dependencies or technical limitations.
From visual editing tools that enable rapid experimentation to AI-powered optimization that automatically directs traffic to winning variations, you have the infrastructure to build a testing program that scales with your ambitions.
Ready to see how Dermalogica built its testing program from the ground up? Watch the full webinar to discover the complete framework, real test examples, and actionable strategies you can implement today.
Inside Dermalogica's testing strategy
In this webinar, learn how Dermalogica structures experiments, prioritizes what to test, and turns insights into better customer experiences — with takeaways you can apply right away.
