Question 1

Modular web design vs custom development: which builds higher-converting websites?

Accepted Answer

The label alone can't tell you which site will convert better. Modular and custom describe how pages are put together, and a page's conversion rate depends on what it offers, whether the copy and proof fit the buyer, and how the page performs when they use it. The build can affect that last part, through things like speed and ease of use, and neither label guarantees it. The difference we'd pay most attention to is what a later change costs, because a site improves through changes that someone makes and then checks.

Question 2

How does growth-driven design contribute to faster ROI?

Accepted Answer

Growth-driven design can bring a website's payback forward when two things hold. A smaller, useful version of the site goes live earlier than a full build would, and it produces more for the business than the site it replaced. Later improvement work can add to that gain, and each round of it also adds cost. Whether the return comes faster depends on those gains set against everything spent, and the method doesn't guarantee the result.

Question 3

Who should invest in a growth-driven design website, and when is it the wrong fit?

Accepted Answer

Growth-driven design suits a business whose website has ongoing work to do and whose team can keep acting on what it learns. In practice the site affects revenue, someone owns it and can approve changes, the team can reach buyers and measure an outcome, and there is money for work after launch. It's a poor fit when the need is a fixed, one-time job, or when the business isn't yet able to act on what the site teaches. A bounded project is likely the better purchase in those cases. Low traffic alone doesn't rule the method out, though it changes how you learn.

Question 4

How do you turn user insights into growth-driven design hypotheses and experiments?

Accepted Answer

You turn a user insight into a hypothesis by writing down four things: what you saw, what you think explains it, the change that follows from that explanation, and the one number that should move if you're right. The experiment is then matched to what the page can support. A split test can measure whether the number moved. Usability sessions and interviews can't measure a rate, but they can show whether people understand the page and where they stall, and that can be enough to make a change you record as a judgment.

Question 5

Will a website redesign fix low conversion rates?

Accepted Answer

A redesign fixes a low conversion rate only when it changes whatever is stopping visitors from converting. If the cause is a message that doesn't say what you sell, or a structure that hides the next step, a redesign that rebuilds those can raise the rate. If the cause is the wrong visitors, a weak offer or a demanding form, a redesign that leaves those alone leaves the obstacle in place. So the first job is finding the cause.

Question 6

What should a growth-driven design blueprint include?

Accepted Answer

A growth-driven design blueprint is the written strategy a team agrees on before it builds. It should include the business goal the site serves, the evidence about what buyers need, a ranked list of what to build, a plan for the pages in the first release, the measures the release will be judged by, and the person responsible for each decision. The word also names a narrower product. Lean Labs sells a Design Blueprint that sets a site's visual direction, and a project can need both.

Question 7

What does HubSpot's growth-driven design certification cover?

Accepted Answer

HubSpot's growth-driven design certification covered the decisions behind a website: who it's for, what to build first, and how to test changes after launch. HubSpot announced it in 2017 as training in what to build and why, and said it wouldn't teach coding. HubSpot Academy has since retired its two growth-driven design courses, so the subject list is now a record of what was taught.

Question 8

What do real growth-driven design examples and case studies teach us?

Accepted Answer

Growth-driven design teams can learn more from these two redesign accounts about how to work than about what return to expect. They are Lean Labs' redesign for Integrate and Media Junction's site for the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy. The first puts the message ahead of the layout. In the second, changes made after launch came from small things the team noticed visitors doing. Both report percentage gains, and both are an agency's before-and-after account of its own project. So borrow the practices, and treat each number as what one team observed on one site.

Question 9

What should a growth-driven design contract and ongoing retainer include?

Accepted Answer

A growth-driven design agreement should say what the first release contains, what the continuing work consists of, what you own and can access, how changes are approved, and how either side leaves. Agencies package this work in different ways. Where it's split into a first release at a fixed price and continuing work billed monthly, each part needs its own terms, because one has an end and the other repeats. These are commercial terms we'd recommend settling in writing for that kind of arrangement, and each is open to negotiation.

Question 10

How do you create a growth-driven design strategy for a website redesign?

Accepted Answer

You create a growth-driven design strategy by setting the goal for the redesign, finding out what your buyers are trying to do and where the current site gets in their way, and ranking the ideas for fixing it against that goal. The highest-ranked ideas shape the first release, along with whatever the site needs in order to work. The rest goes on a wishlist, and the team revisits it as interviews and live data come in.

Question 11

What services should a growth-driven design agency provide?

Accepted Answer

A growth-driven design agency should provide three connected pieces of work: research and strategy that decide what the first release contains, the design and build of that release, and continued improvement of the live site. Each one should leave you with something you can use, such as a written plan, a working website or a record of what changed and what happened next. The improvement work is the part that continues after launch, so its scope deserves close attention before you sign.

Question 12

What is growth-driven design, and how is it different from traditional web design?

Accepted Answer

Growth-driven design is a way of running a website as continuing work. A team does a short strategy stage, launches a focused first version of the site, and then improves the live site in repeated cycles. The usual comparison is a single redesign project, which agrees on the full scope up front and works toward one launch. The two differ most in when decisions get made and when the money is committed.

Growth-Driven Design