Your teams are optimising. Your business isn't. Here's why. 

How do you know if your digital experiences are truly driving commercial impact — or just ticking boxes? 

I've been thinking about this question since a collab session a few months ago where a marketing leader said something that really stuck with me: "We're running more tests than ever, but our results feel temporary. Nothing seems to stick." It perfectly captured a groundswell of frustration I've been hearing across many conversations. 

Here's what's become increasingly clear to me: most companies are stuck at the bottom of what we call the Experience Optimisation maturity curve. They're making changes, running tests, creating content — but it's all happening in isolation. Different teams, different goals, zero coordination. Sound familiar? 

The uncomfortable truth about digital silos 

Let me share what we discovered through our latest research. The organisations seeing real commercial impact — we're talking significant revenue lifts — aren't the ones with the fanciest tech stacks. They're the ones who've cracked something much simpler: getting their teams to actually work together. 

Think about your own organisation for a moment. When was the last time your brand team sat down with your experimentation specialists? Or your content strategists collaborated directly with your CRO team? It's all too common that these groups might as well be in different companies. 

This is where the mindset shift becomes critical. Experience Optimisation isn't a department; it's a discipline that should run through your entire digital operation. It's the difference between redecorating individual rooms and properly renovating a house. One gives you more pleasing spaces; the other transforms how you actually live. 

What actually drives commercial impact? 

I've been working with our team on a whitepaper about Experience Optimisation (EO), and something keeps coming back to me: the difference between basic and mature EO isn't about running more A/B tests or having better analytics (though those help). It's about integration. 

The most successful digital transformations put experience optimisation at their core rather than focusing solely on technology implementation. We've seen the data — companies treating EO as a board-level concern deliver significantly greater returns than those treating it as a marketing tactic. 

The Four Stages (and where you probably are) 

We've mapped out four stages of EO maturity, and here's what we're seeing — most organisations are barely past stage one: 

Initial Stage: You're doing some A/B testing. Maybe some UX improvements. But your brand expression is all over the place, and content gets created in silos. This is where most enterprises sit. 

Developing Stage: You've got structure. Analytics are happening. Teams are starting to talk. But integration? Not quite there yet. 

Advanced Stage: Starting to cook on gas. Real-time personalisation, continuous experimentation, brand ecosystem coherently expressed everywhere. Your content strategy actually aligns with user journeys. 

Mature Stage: The north star. Data drives every decision, AI enhances everything, and your brand adapts dynamically while maintaining consistency. This is where commercial impact goes through the roof. 

Moving up this maturity curve isn't primarily about technology investment. It's about changing how teams work together, how success is measured, and fundamentally, how the organisation thinks about digital experience. 

How AI is transforming the game (if you've got your house in order) 

Everyone's abuzz about AI, and here's what's genuinely exciting: we're seeing tools like Optimizely's Opal fundamentally change how teams approach not just experimentation, but their entire digital operation. 

What caught my attention about Opal is how it can tackle the grunt work across multiple teams. Content marketers use it for campaign ideation and brief creation. Experimentation teams get help with hypotheses and test plans. Digital strategists can leverage it for SEO and keyword research. It's like having an extra team member who never sleeps — what Optimizely calls an "infinite workforce." 

I've been thinking about what this actually means in practice. Your content team can focus on strategy instead of drowning in production tasks. Your experimentation team can run more sophisticated tests because they're not stuck in setup. Your commerce team can generate product descriptions that actually convert. Sounds grand, but it only works if you've got your house in order. 

It sounds obvious but: these tools only sing when you've got the foundations right. Clean data, connected systems, brand guidelines that actually exist, teams who understand what good looks like. I've watched organisations implement AI into chaos and, unsurprisingly, it just gave them faster chaos. 

What works is when AI becomes part of a mature programme. If your brand voice is scattered, your content strategy non-existent, and your teams working in silos, even the smartest AI can't magic that away. But if you've got those foundations? Then tools like Opal genuinely accelerate everything — from content creation to campaign execution to insight generation. 

The organisations getting real value aren't using AI to replace thinking. They're using it to handle the heavy lifting across their digital ecosystem so their teams can do more of the thinking that matters. Modern platforms like Optimizely are making this accessible without constant developer support. But only when the foundations are strong. Get those right first, then watch what happens when you add intelligent automation to the mix. 

Breaking down the walls 

The organisations seeing real results? They're the ones brave enough to break down their internal walls. To create what we call a "single roadmap, single team" approach. Not easy. Definitely not comfortable. But absolutely necessary if you want to see genuine commercial impact. 

We recently surfaced some fantastic client results after progressing a multi-pronged  EO programme. Not only had conversion increased significantly, but customer lifetime value was up because the improved experience created genuine loyalty, not just one-off transactions. That's the kind of persistent result that gets board-level attention. 

What this means for you 

So here's my question for you: are you ready to move beyond tactical improvements to strategic transformation? Because that's what real Experience Optimisation demands. It's not about better A/B testing. It's about fundamentally rethinking how your digital teams work together. 

We've just released a comprehensive whitepaper alongside Optimizely that maps out how to progress along the EO maturity curve. It includes perspectives from our specialist team, real case studies (like Corinthia Hotels' significant year-over-year booking revenue increase), and a practical framework for assessing where you are now. 

The truth is, most organisations are dramatically underinvesting in EO relative to its  potential impact. They're spending fortunes on advertising while their digital experiences leak value at every touchpoint. 

Your next move 

Ready to find out where you sit on the maturity curve? Our whitepaper walks you through the assessment and — more importantly — shows you exactly how to level up. Because staying stuck at stage one isn't just leaving money on the table. It's handing competitive advantage to whoever moves first. 

The question isn't whether you should be optimising — you already are. The question is whether you're ready to stop tinkering at the edges and start building something that delivers genuine, persistent commercial impact. 

Because whilst everyone else is still treating symptoms, the organisations that embrace true Experience Optimisation are building competitive advantages that compound over time. 

Exciting when you think about what's possible, isn't it? 

 
Download our Experience Optimisation whitepaper here