The PIE (Potential, Importance, and Ease) framework is a powerful tool for prioritising hypotheses for conversion rate optimization (CRO) testing. By using this framework, you can ensure that you’re focusing your efforts on the most impactful areas of your website and that you’re able to quickly and efficiently test and validate your ideas.
The first step in using the PIE framework is to generate a list of hypotheses. These can be ideas for improving the user experience, increasing conversions, or anything else that you think will have an impact on your website’s performance. Once you have a list of hypotheses, you can begin to evaluate each one using the PIE criteria.
Potential: This criteria evaluates the potential impact of a hypothesis on your website’s performance. How much of an improvement do you think this hypothesis will make? This can be difficult to predict, but you can use data and research to help guide your estimates.
Importance: This criteria looks at how important a hypothesis is to your business or organisation. Are you trying to increase revenue? Improve user engagement? Reduce bounce rate? Whatever your goal is, you want to prioritise the hypotheses that align with it.
Ease: This criteria examines how easy it will be to test a hypothesis. Will it require a lot of development work? Will it require a significant investment of time or resources? The easier a hypothesis is to test, the more quickly you can validate it and move on to the next one.
Once you’ve evaluated each hypothesis using the PIE criteria, you can create a prioritised list of hypotheses to test. You may want to start with the hypotheses that have the highest potential, importance, and ease scores. As you test and validate your hypotheses, you can continue to use the PIE framework to prioritise future testing efforts.
By using the PIE framework to prioritise your CRO hypotheses, you can ensure that you’re focusing on the most impactful areas of your website and that you’re able to quickly and efficiently test and validate your ideas. With a clear, data-driven approach to CRO, you’ll be well on your way to improving your website’s performance and achieving your business goals.
Are there any free P.I.E. framework templates available online?
Yes, there are several free PIE (Potential, Importance, and Ease) framework templates available online that you can use to prioritise your conversion rate optimization (CRO) hypotheses. These templates typically provide a simple and intuitive way to organise and evaluate your hypotheses, so you can quickly and easily identify the most impactful areas of your website to focus on.
One popular option is the PIE Matrix, which is a visual representation of the PIE framework. It’s a simple 2-dimensional grid that allows you to plot your hypotheses based on their Potential, Importance, and Ease scores.
Another option is the PIE Scorecard, which is a tabular format that allows you to evaluate and compare your hypotheses based on their PIE scores. This format is great for larger teams or organisations that have many hypotheses to evaluate.
You can also find PIE templates in excel spreadsheets, Google Sheets and other formats that you can easily customise to fit your needs. Many of these templates can be found by searching for “PIE framework template” or “CRO hypothesis prioritisation template” in a search engine.
It’s also worth noting that some A/B testing platforms like Optimizely, Visual Web Optimizer, and Unbounce have built-in hypothesis prioritisation tools that incorporate the PIE framework to prioritise test ideas and hypotheses.
It’s important to note that these templates and tools are just a guide and it’s more important to understand the concepts and principles of the PIE framework and apply it in a way that aligns with your organisation’s goals and processes.
What alternatives are there to the P.I.E. (priority, importance, ease) framework for CRO test hypotheses?
There are several alternatives to the P.I.E. framework for generating CRO test hypotheses. Some examples include:
- The Five Whys method: This involves asking “why” five times in order to get to the root cause of a problem.
- The Kano Model: This model helps to identify customer needs and classify them as basic, performance, or excitement attributes.
- The AARRR framework (Acquisition, Activation, Retention, Referral, Revenue): This framework focuses on the key metrics that drive growth for a business.
- The SCAMPER method: This method is a creative technique that helps to generate new ideas by taking an existing product or service and modifying it in various ways (Substitute, Combine, Adapt, Modify, Put to another use, Eliminate, Reverse).
- The Job-to-be-done (JTBD) framework: This framework focuses on understanding the customer’s needs and the specific job that they are trying to accomplish when they use your product or service.
These frameworks are not mutually exclusive, they can be used together to generate more ideas and test more hypotheses.
How do I implement each of these for prioritising CRO test hypotheses?
Here’s a brief overview of how you can implement each of these frameworks for prioritising CRO test hypotheses:
- The Five Whys method: Start by identifying a specific problem or goal for your CRO test, then ask “why” five times to get to the root cause. For example, “Why are our bounce rates high?” “Why are users leaving our site so quickly?” “Why aren’t users engaging with our content?” and so on. Once you’ve identified the root cause, use it to generate test hypotheses and prioritise them based on their potential impact on the problem or goal.
- The Kano Model: Identify the key customer needs that drive satisfaction with your product or service. Classify these needs as basic, performance, or excitement attributes and prioritise test hypotheses based on their potential impact on these attributes.
- The AARRR framework: Identify the key metrics that drive growth for your business, such as acquisition, activation, retention, referral, and revenue. Prioritise test hypotheses based on their potential impact on these metrics.
- The SCAMPER method: Take an existing product or service and modify it in various ways to generate new ideas. Prioritise test hypotheses based on their potential impact on customer needs and the specific job that they are trying to accomplish when they use your product or service.
- The Job-to-be-done (JTBD) framework: Understand the specific jobs that your customers are trying to accomplish when they use your product or service. Prioritise test hypotheses based on their potential impact on these jobs.
It’s important to also consider the feasibility and ease of testing when prioritising hypotheses, so you can select the ones that are most likely to be successful with the resources you have. It’s also important to consider the data you have, such as analytics data, user feedback and user research, to validate your hypotheses and prioritise them accordingly.
