{"id":1833,"date":"2016-12-20T10:00:52","date_gmt":"2016-12-20T10:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.qualaroo.com\/?p=1833"},"modified":"2025-08-26T05:37:18","modified_gmt":"2025-08-26T05:37:18","slug":"lessons-from-a-cro-sensei-an-interview-with-house-of-kaizen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web-staging.qualaroo.com\/blog\/lessons-from-a-cro-sensei-an-interview-with-house-of-kaizen\/","title":{"rendered":"Lessons From a CRO Sensei: An Interview With House of Kaizen"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cThere’s something intrinsically altruistic about CRO,\u201d Mathilde Boyer, conversion rate optimization (CRO) guru and Conversion Director at House of Kaizen<\/a>, says. \u201cIf you’re not creating aspirations or solving problems, you’re doing it wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n

We sat down with House of Kaizen, a digital marketing agency that specializes in CRO, to get their take on what makes users convert. Their model of CRO puts the users’ perspective first. \u201cThere’s still a significant amount of marketers who think about CRO in terms of technology, rather than putting the human perspective first,\u201d Boyer says. \u201cCRO is about offering solutions to users’ problems.\u201d<\/p>\n

Without a holistic approach to CRO, testing is like throwing darts at a board\u2014with a blindfold on. You might strike the bullseye eventually, but there’s no guarantee you can do it again. House of Kaizen’s three-step method will give you a process for putting your users first and hitting the bullseye every time.<\/p>\n

<\/span>The Burrito Model of CRO<\/span><\/h2>\n

House of Kaizen uses the Burrito Model to explain the purpose of CRO. Your site is like a burrito, with tons of different ingredients. Using CRO identifies which ingredient makes your burrito special\u2014whether it’s the meat, the cheese, or the guacamole that keeps users coming back for more.<\/p>\n

\"anatomy-of-a-burrito\"<\/p>\n

[source<\/a>]<\/p>\n

If guacamole is a must-have for your users, add a little bit more. If the type of cheese isn’t doing it for them, switch it up. Thinking of CRO this way keeps your process user-centric. The most important thing in this scenario isn’t the person making the burrito. It’s the person eating it.<\/p>\n

Considering your user’s perspective on your website means considering their user journey. House of Kaizen lays out three steps to carving out a compelling path for your users.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Create segments. <\/b>Creating profitable segments tracks and categorizes who’s giving you business. This step tells you who <\/i>to optimize for.<\/li>\n
  2. Craft a dialogue. <\/b>Before making changes to your site, you have to figure out how to make your users understand the value of your product. This step tells you what <\/i>you need to say to your segments.<\/li>\n
  3. Maximize engagement. <\/b>This is when you start testing. Once you craft your dialogue, this step helps you figure out when,<\/i> where, <\/i>and how<\/i> <\/i>to deliver your messages.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    These steps ensure you’re catering to your user’s needs. Guiding users to understand the value of your product helps them <\/i>just as much as it helps you. It’s ultimately what will increase your conversions.<\/p>\n

    <\/span>1. Discover Who<\/i> Your Users Are<\/span><\/h2>\n

    The first step in House of Kaizen’s method is discovering who <\/i>your users are and grouping them into segments. Different segments are going to need different aspects of your product. Maybe some of the users for your mobile analytics tool are developers, but maybe others are marketers. Before you can optimize for your user segments, you need to figure out who they are.<\/p>\n

    Luckily, you don’t have to do this through guesswork. With every client, House of Kaizen uses a combination of behavioral and attitudinal tools to discover who their audiences are\u2014including at least one \u201cvoice of customer\u201d tool, where they can collect data directly from their clients’ users. They use Qualaroo to survey users on-site, and get \u201calmost subconscious\u201d feedback. \u201cWith on-site surveys, we’re catching them in the moment,\u201d Boyer explains, \u201cso they don’t necessarily think about the answer, they just type what they’re thinking.\u201d<\/p>\n

    There are hundreds of criteria\u2014user intent, product perceived benefits, demographics, to name a few\u2014 that you can ask on your surveys to help you create segments. To level up, use branching logic<\/a> to create very specific, in-depth audiences.<\/p>\n

    <\/span>2. Discover What <\/i>to Say to Your Users<\/span><\/h2>\n

    The next step of House of Kaizen’s method is crafting a dialogue\u2014deciding what<\/i> to say to your segments. Before their CRO experts even touch an A\/B test, they think about what they need to communicate. Boyer points out that you only have 8 seconds of attention span<\/a> to get your message across to your users, so you have to be 100% efficient on what that message is.<\/p>\n

    House of Kaizen states that persuasive messages do one of these three things:<\/p>\n