In this 6‑questions‑in‑7‑minutes interview on the Winning at Business and Life podcast, host Professor Pete Alexander talks with conversion optimizer Alex Harris. Harris explains his role helping websites increase revenue by improving user experience, emphasizing the importance of understanding user psychology and behavior. He highlights that large companies often move slowly despite their size, and stresses that businesses must set realistic expectations and learn continuously. Harris recommends focusing on the "customer mindset" chapter for most companies, using data‑driven tools like Hotjar to observe and query users, and leveraging insights from analytics to guide design and A/B testing decisions. He shares a concrete example of using Hotjar to watch anonymous user interactions, identify friction points, and ask targeted questions to improve conversion rates. Harris recounts his first job as a web designer creating HTML newsletters, which taught him on‑the‑job lessons in direct‑response conversion optimization and iterative testing. He concludes by directing listeners to his website alexdesigns.com and his podcast happyprogress.com.
Chapters
This is Professor Pete Alexander with the Winning at Business and Life podcast, where business leaders share their insights. It is 6 questions in 7 minutes because successful business leaders are busy and rarely have more time to spare. So let's get to it. Question number 1, in a few sentences, please tell me who you are and what you do.
Hey, thanks for having me. I'm Alex Harris and I am a conversion optimizer, so I help websites make more money and improve the experience and make sure that your business makes more money from the traffic that's actually getting to your site.
Well, Alex, it's great to have you on the show. Question number 2: What is something that makes you smile and/or laugh about working in your industry?
What makes me smile or laugh is usually that I work with very big companies and you would think they move very, very quickly, but they do not, and they don't know as much as you think that they would to be where they are at the levels of business that they are. So, you know, set your expectations in the right way because there's a lot to learn in all aspects of business.
That's really great, and it's actually experience that I've had too with very large companies that they move very slowly, and you sometimes have to wonder, how did you get so successful if you can't, you know, you can't move faster? Question number 3. I have a fictitious book with all the answers for business. What chapter would you think most companies should read?
I think it's, uh, customer or user mindset. Really understanding how your users behave on your website throughout your business and understanding that from a psychological perspective. You know, you can all have all the tools and bells and whistles that you want, but until you understand what makes them tick, you can't really understand how to solve more problems for them and sell them more stuff.
Mm-hmm, absolutely. That's very wise. Question number 4: Other than the generic work harder, have a great attitude, and care for customers, what advice or insight would you give to other business leaders?
I think leading on my last answer, understanding the user's behavior is key, key to business. So you can actually leverage that insight through tools and analysis these days. So using web design and analytics to use data and science to really make decisions for your business overall. So I would say, The insights that are going to be the most important are the ones that you actually get from your customers by understanding the psychology and the overall customer behavior.
Mm-hmm. I see. And when you're talking about using that data, can you give us an example so that the listeners understand a little bit better what you're talking about?
Yeah. For any website, whether you have a blog or a big e-commerce site, you can use a tool like Hotjar, which you easily just install on your site, and you're able to watch users anonymously go through your website and see them actually interacting with each of the UI elements of your pages. Your forms, your checkout process. And then you can see the frustrations that they may have. And if— and then you can actually ask them questions. What stopped you from completing that form? Or what stopped you from purchasing that particular item? So instead of guessing what your customers are doing, you can actually use data to actually make those decisions and improve your ROI.
Got it. Well, thank you for clarifying that. I think that was really helpful. Question number 5, what other business leader like yourself would you like to acknowledge and invite to be on my podcast?
Hmm, I probably do have a lot of them. I have to think about this and get back to you.
Perfect. And our final question, question 6, please tell me about your first job.
Hmm, my first job, aside from selling Blow Pops and baseball cards in grammar school, my first job was as a web designer. I was hired to create HTML newsletters that drove traffic to landing pages. And this really established what I started doing on the web. Using data and design to actually make decisions. After doing this for years, I realized I was actually doing direct response conversion optimization A/B testing, and I was kind of learning what I was doing on the fly. I didn't go to marketing school, I didn't go to business school. I kind of learned it all along the way, and my first job really taught me everything about what I'm doing today.
Oh, that's great. And yeah, it's fun to learn on the job and just kind of experiment. And I'm assuming you made, you know, you've learned a lot from both your successes and failures, am I right?
Yeah, and all we do is iterative improvements in our clients' designs and sites. So we do experimentation and optimization. So it's all an A/B test, trial and error, figuring out what works, what doesn't for yourself, your career, and your clients.
Perfect. Well, Alex, thank you so much for being on the show. How could people find you?
Yeah, you could check me out on my main website. It's alexdesigns.com, or you can also check out my podcast at happyprogress.com.
Perfect. This is Professor Pete Alexander with the Winning at Business and Life podcast. Thanks for listening.
