Why I Tell Most Aspiring Experimenters NOT to Become Freelancers (And What to Do Instead)
Last week, I received an email that stopped me in my tracks. An eager professional with five years of business development experience reached out asking about transitioning into CRO freelancing. His enthusiasm was infectious. He told me he'd been reading books and articles about conversion optimization and found the experimentation career blog insightful.
But his plan to jump straight into CRO freelancing made me pause. I've seen this story before, and it rarely ends well.
After working in both startups and enterprises in experimentation, I've learned that CRO isn't just another marketing skill you can pick up on weekends. It's a multidisciplinary field that demands depth, breadth, and, most importantly, real-world experience over time.
Here's what I wish every career changer knew before making the leap.
The Pillars of CRO Mastery
Most people think CRO is about running A/B tests and tweaking button colors. That's like saying surgery is about making incisions. The real work happens in three interconnected domains:
The Knowledge Foundation
This is where most beginners start—and where many get stuck. The knowledge pillar includes:
Statistical literacy: Understanding confidence intervals, statistical significance, sample sizes, and when correlation doesn't equal causation
Test framework: Hypothesis formation, different types of experimentation tests, and when to use what for different goals
UX and conversion design principles: Knowing visual hierarchy, cognitive load theory, and persuasion psychology
Digital persuasion mastery: From conversion copywriting to understanding behavioral triggers that drive action
At NRG Energy, I've run over 70 experiments last year across six brands serving 7M+ customers. The statistical rigor required to avoid false positives at that scale isn't something you learn from blog posts. One misinterpreted result could cost millions in misallocated marketing spend and bottom line revenue.
The Application Skills
Knowledge without application is just expensive trivia. The doing pillar encompasses:
Conversion auditing: Systematically identifying friction points across user funnels
User flow mapping: Understanding how people actually navigate your site versus how you think they do
Hypothesis formation: Crafting testable theories backed by data and research, not hunches
Competitive intelligence: Finding proven solutions from adjacent industries and adapting them intelligently
When I joined Silicon Valley Bank, I inherited a startup banking marketing funnel. The first three months weren't about running tests. They were about understanding why prospects dropped off, mapping every decision point, and building hypotheses worth testing.
The Communication Bridge
This is where most technical people struggle and where business backgrounds actually shine. The learning pillar requires:
Stakeholder translation: Explaining complex statistical concepts to executives who think p-values are typos
Results interpretation: Knowing when a 15% lift is meaningful versus when it's noise
Roadmap prioritization: Balancing high-impact tests with quick wins
Cross-functional collaboration: Working effectively with designers, developers, and marketers who speak different languages
Your business development background gives you an advantage here. You understand client needs, stakeholder management, and revenue impact. But don't underestimate how deep the technical requirements go.
Why I Don't Recommend the Freelancing Fast Track
This professional's enthusiasm reminds me of my own career transition journey. But here's what I learned the hard way: CRO is a reputation-driven field where mistakes are visible and expensive.
Most successful CRO freelancers fall into one of these categories:
Full-stack experts who can handle everything from statistical modeling to conversion design
Small agency teams where specialists complement each other
Highly specialized experts in one domain (like conversion copywriting or analytics)
Notice what's missing? Generalists without hands-on experience.
The brutal truth: clients hiring CRO specialists expect immediate results. A poorly designed experiment can waste months of traffic and budget. A misinterpreted statistical result can kill a profitable variation.
The industry is smaller than you think. CRO practitioners attend the same conferences (CXL Live, OptimizeCon). We know each other's work. Word travels fast about who delivers results and who doesn't.
I don't say this to discourage you. I say it because I genuinely want you to succeed. The field needs talented professionals who understand both business impact and scientific rigor. But that success comes from taking the right path, not the fastest one.
The Smart Path: Building Skills While Building Reputation
Instead of jumping into freelancing, consider these strategic entry points:
Adjacent Role Transitions
Conversion copywriter: Leverage your business communication skills while learning persuasion psychology
Marketing analytics specialist: Build statistical literacy while supporting CRO teams
UX researcher: Develop user insights skills that inform better experiments
Conversion designer: Focus on design principles that drive action, not just aesthetics
Internal Opportunity Creation
Look for experimentation opportunities in your current role:
Volunteer to A/B test email campaigns
Audit your company's conversion funnel
Propose small tests for landing pages or pricing strategies
Become the go-to person for data-driven decision making
Structured Learning Paths
Consider programs like:
CXL Institute for comprehensive CRO education
Reforge for advanced growth strategy
Company internships at growth-focused startups
The Technical Foundation You Actually Need
If you're serious about this transition, focus on building real competencies:
Essential Tools Mastery:
Analytics platforms: Google Analytics 4, Adobe Analytics, Amplitude
Testing platforms: Optimizely, VWO, Adobe Target
Research tools: Hotjar, FullStory, Contentsquare
Statistical software: At minimum, understanding confidence intervals and sample size calculations
Development Skills (Yes, Really): Basic HTML, CSS, and JavaScript knowledge isn't optional. You need to understand how tests get implemented, what's technically feasible, and how to communicate effectively with developers.
The Opportunity Is Real (But So Are the Requirements)
Don't let my reality check discourage you. The opportunity in CRO is massive and growing. Companies are increasingly recognizing that small conversion improvements compound into millions in revenue. The $16M+ impact I delivered at NRG didn't come from one breakthrough insight but from systematic improvement across dozens of experiments.
Your business development background provides valuable context for understanding customer needs and revenue impact. You already know how to communicate with stakeholders, manage expectations, and think about business outcomes. These skills are incredibly valuable in CRO. They're just not sufficient on their own.
The challenge is developing technical skills that match your strategic thinking.
Atticus Li is a growth strategist and experimentation leader with 10+ years in SaaS, banking, and energy. His work in CRO, analytics, and behavioral economics has helped startups and Fortune 500s drive over $1B in acquisitions and major revenue gains. He writes at experimentationcareer.com, helping students, practitioners, and decision-makers apply experimentation to build smarter products, careers, and teams.