A/B testing and conversion optimization have undoubtedly risen in popularity over the years. Increasingly, companies are identifying a need for someone to own it — either by adding optimization on to an existing job or hiring someone fully dedicated to it. Today, we see optimization scattered around many positions and teams, though.

From conversations with our customers, we’ve learned that some folks who do A/B testing also have day-to-day responsibilities ranging from SEO to front end development to content marketing. But, it’s apparent that the folks who do conversion optimization have one thing in common: an obsession with growth. Their work directly contributes to company growth and impacts wins and fails. In essence, everyone who practices A/B testing and optimization is a Growth Marketer.

To glean perspective on our thoughts, we asked Sean Ellis, the founder of Growthhackers.com.

Sean feels that conversion optimization is part of a Growth Marketer strategy including building viral features, product integrations and having a freemium product tier.

What would a growth marketing team look like?

“You’d probably have a lot of the same types of roles you see in traditional teams,” Sean said. “Those would include copywriters, analysts, designers, but you’d also want to add some development skills for deeper funnel optimization and growth (i.e. viral) feature development.”

Blue line shows Google Search trends for the term “a/b testing” over time. The red line shows trends for “conversion optimization”.

So, what is it about a Growth Marketer that enables him or her to be instrumental in growing the business while kicking ass at optimizing your website? It’s important to define a core set of qualities for an “optimizer” so companies can accomplish their growth goals (and of course build the best optimization teams).

San Francisco startup, Patreon, is on the hunt for a Head of Growth Marketing who is “an analytical, data driven growth strategist, with an expertise in marketing, a passion for the digital creation space, and a soft spot for the arts.”

Sprout Social is looking for a Head of Conversion  “should ideally be a creative, strategic thinker with good intuition.” Hubspot is looking for a Director of Growth and Conversion Rate Optimization.

A job posting from HubSpot for a Director of Growth and Conversion Rate Optimization.

This is just the beginning. The 2014 State of Online Testing report from WhichTestWon revealed that 65% of companies already testing, are planning on hiring or outsourcing optimization roles in 2015. (Link to download report).

“When WhichTestWon launched in 2009, only a handful of professionals worldwide referred to themselves as being testing specialists,” the study states. “This year’s study data shows that, five years on, testing is becoming an enviable career path.”

To help us define the must-have qualities of a “Growth Marketer we’re turning to the Optiverse community and asking you. After all, who better to ask than A/B testing experts themselves!

Here’s what the community has come up with so far.

Growth Marketers should definitely:

•      be fearlessly creative.
•      be willing to measure everything.
•      be able to admit failure.
•      get sh*t done, but never say it’s done.

What do you think are the must-have skills to be a Growth Marketer?

Share your thoughts with us to contribute more data points that we can use to create more tangible resources on building teams focused on optimization.

Related Articles:

10 Questions to Hire an Optimization Rockstar

5 Traits of Best-in-Class Optimization Teams

Teamwork Makes the Dream Work: Which Testing Team Are You?