Conversion Optimization Minidegree at CXL — Final Review

This is my last review of the Conversion Optimization Minidegree at CXL. This means that 12 weeks have passed, I have completed the training, successfully passed the final exam and now I’m CXL certified.

In this review, I will share my final thoughts about this mini degree.

This in-depth conversion optimization training program will help you become a top conversion optimizer. The skills you gain will benefit you for years to come. You’ll learn how top conversion rate experts in the world approach conversion optimization.

When I sat down to write this final post I went back to the CXL’s website to have another look at how they present this program themselves. And now when I have completed the training I can say it is all true what they say.

It is a very in-depth program and it has what I call the holy grail of teaching:

• They start with fundamentals and teach things like best practices and using Google Analytics.
• They teach methodology and processes. And it is all taught by top practitioners who have been doing it for years, and you can really see they’re experts
• There’s also the practical aspect of it all and they show how to do it, share the templates they use (and show how they use them)
• and most importantly they teach how to think about the subject.

I see this program not just as a way to get the needed skills, but also as a massive time saver. Besides the obvious that they have the top names in the industry as instructors and have thought out what exactly you need to learn to be an optimizer, they also link to a lot more articles for supplemental reading. So you save days or maybe even weeks of useless browsing online looking for information and reading things that might not necessarily be correct.

I wanted to take this program because I started to see that information I find online on this subject is only scratching the surface. I got to the point where I had more questions than answers. I didn’t know if I could trust the information that was out there in blogs. But now after going through this Conversion Optimization program I know exactly what processes are working and how to approach certain website-related things.

A good example would be buyer personas. There is a huge amount of google search results on this and of course, many of the blog posts either have flawed suggestions on how to work on buyer personas or the information is not deep enough. At the CXL program, there’s a dedicated course to it and many other courses also touch on it. So not only you get a good understanding of it, you will be able to judge the information you come across in the future.

The actual amount of time required to go through the content

CXL says there are 85 hours of content. I haven’t measured myself and I am sure it’s true, but what should be taken into consideration is that there’s lots of supplemental reading. Also, there are quite a few books and event videos they link to as recommendations. Whilst I am sure books can be read after you’re finished with the course itself, it takes much longer to complete it if you read the articles from the supplemental reading list. Also, you might need to pause to write things down. Even if you are super-efficient taking notes not needing to stop the videos, then you might need to stop them when you try to follow along with Google Analytics courses. It was naive of me to think that I’ll only need an hour a day to complete the program in three months.

Note-taking

I was more than happy I have worked out a fantastic note-taking system before I started this program. There is a huge amount of information and very soon it will be too complicated to navigate if there’s no system in place. I did not expect there could be so much information that is worth noting a note of. There’s literally no chit-chat in those 85 hours of content, everything is either important or interesting.

Interestingness

And talking about interesting information, when I looked up word interestingness I was glad is an actual word, because it should be part of every course evaluation criteria :). So if I had to give Conversion Optimization a score for interestingness it would be 10/10. I genuinely find it important, because it helps to keep your attention, you stay engaged and it helps to simply enjoy it.

Final exam

As per CXL fashion, it requires 90% correct answers to pass. When you get 85% or so (as it happened to me) it makes you slightly annoyed, because that’s good enough, but at the end of the day, this raised bar makes you feel more proud of yourself. I’m sure it makes others value CXL certificates more than some other course certificates.

Discipline

3 months to complete 85 hours of training doesn’t sound that hard, right? It is indeed a long time, but that’s the thing. A lot can happen in 3 months. I had a couple of weeks from hell because my mum broke her leg, so therefore I had to not only help her out, but also my grandma, and then my kid got ill. Now I’m smiling, but I had a moment when I was weeping on my keyboard thinking this was it and I would fail because I literally had no energy left. But then I remembered who I am and did the work :) I am trying to say that some discipline, good time management, and keeping the focus on the goal helps a lot, because, unless you haven’t much happening in life, it might not be easy to stay highly motivated and cheerful every single day throughout the 3 months.

CXL says it’s the most thorough CRO training in the world and trust me, you will get so much information and value from it your brain will hurt.

If you’re considering starting on any of the mini degrees at CXL, I highly recommend to doubt no more and just do it.