Meet Tim Richards our super new Conversion Services Director
By Lee Colbran|27 Jun 2023
Culture | 3 MIN READ
We caught up with Tim Richards, who joined our Conversion Services team in the full-time role of Conversion Services Director. We asked Tim about his career to date, his thoughts on the world of conversion and (most importantly) Tim’s favourite way to eat an egg.
Welcome Tim, describe your career path to date and how you got into conversion/performance.
My career path to conversion rate optimisation started when I got into Digital Analytics. I was Digital Analytics Manager at Avios, which involved working closely with the CRO team driving insight for tests. From that point on, I wanted to be more involved in CRO. Over the past five years, I have been driving experimentation at esure insurance as CRO Manager and then driving experimentation culture as a Product Owner across a new insurance product – esure Flex.
From my experience over the past year, conversion rate optimisation is becoming more embedded within product teams, and it is great to see experimentation starting to be at the forefront of product decisions and improving performance rather than an afterthought.
Tim Richards, Conversion Services Director
What made you choose Fresh Egg as the next step in your career path?
I wanted a new challenge and wanted to gain more experience across different industries. Fresh Egg seemed a perfect fit, especially with the opportunities available within Conversion Services
How has the world of conversion changed as a specialism during the last year
From my experience over the past year, conversion rate optimisation is becoming more embedded within product teams.
Companies are using many different models, and it is great to see experimentation starting to be at the forefront of product decisions and improving performance rather than an afterthought.
What experience will you bring from working client side to your new role?
I hope my client-side experience will bring a different perspective to my role and the Conversion Services team. By knowing what an in-house CRO team client needs from an agency, I can influence strategy and culture for clients to move forward in their optimisation journey.
How do you see conversion rate optimisation progressing in the future? What are you excited about?
As mentioned, I see CRO continuing to be embedded within product squads. This is exciting for businesses as it will enable them to increase experiment velocity and use experimentation as the core basis for decision-making. There is the development of AI, so it will be interesting to see how that progresses into the future.
We recently ran a webinar about AI in CRO, how do you think the tech will change experimentation in the future?
Essentially it will enable much more granular personalisation of journeys for customers with the amount of data AI can process and use. With more data gathered and learning more about users, journeys will only get more personalised.
You can only use one tool to do your job, what is it and why?
It has to be a "to-do list" tool such as Trello, as without a tool like this, I would be lost!
If you could use only one website (or app) what would it be and why?
I think it would have to be Amazon. The ability to buy pretty much anything you need within a couple of clicks for the very next day is essential (especially with having kids!).
Do you have a CRO challenge we can help you with?
What’s your favourite brand, and why?
This is a difficult one, but I think it has to be Nike. Not only because I am always ordering the kid's clothing from there, but after reading the "Shoe Dog" book by co-founder of Nike Phil Knight, it's incredible how the brand was built from its infancy.
What are you most looking forward to, continuing your journey with Fresh Egg?
Learning from a wealth of experience! I am also looking forward to helping drive forward the CRO service and improving KPIs for our clients.
What do your friends and family think you do for a job?
"Website stuff", I think it is usually described as! Rather than explaining conversion rate optimization to them I just leave it as that!
What's your go-to hobby out of work?
Golf and the very occasional run. I love getting out on the golf course in the summer whenever I can. I am also a bit of a foodie, so I love trying out new restaurants when possible.
Finally, what is your favourite way to eat an egg (if there is one)?
Poached on toasted sourdough, I would say.
