What Lemmings can teach us about CRO

Published: December 2024

In the classic video game Lemmings, the goal is to safely guide a group of lemmings through a series of obstacles.

The challenge arises because the lemmings march relentlessly forward, oblivious to the dangers ahead. If there’s a gap in the path, the furry protagonists will helplessly plummet to their doom.

An animated gif of the Lemmings in action.
They may not know it, but what these lemmings need is a CRO expert.

To succeed at Lemmings, the player must spot and fix the gaps in the path. This makes the game a lot like Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO). Every business has customers “falling” through the gaps in its conversion funnels, and the best CRO practitioners are relentless in finding and fixing those gaps.

However, in the real world, the gaps in your funnels are much harder to spot (and solve) than the visible chasms in Lemmings. This is where many businesses stumble:

  • The distractions of the obvious: In Lemmings, you might focus on clearing a small obstacle while completely missing a deadly gap in the path. Similarly, businesses often fixate on surface-level issues—like button colors or minor design tweaks—while the bigger, less visible problems quietly hemorrhage customers.

  • Avoiding hard problems: Imagine if you could pause the game and ignore a tricky gap. You can’t. Yet, many businesses try to sidestep tough but critical problems. We often hear clients say, “Can’t we focus on something easier—like testimonials, videos, or a different part of the site?”

But just like in Lemmings, avoiding inconvenient gaps only guarantees more losses.

Winning at Lemmings (and business)

Once you truly see the gaps through which your visitors are falling, you may feel the rising panic we used to feel playing Lemmings. Don’t despair. The most successful players—and companies—constantly ask themselves two simple but powerful questions:

  1. What’s the biggest gap right now?
  2. What’s the best and fastest way to fix it (however hard or uncomfortable)?

Winning at Lemmings requires relentless focus, creative problem-solving, and a commitment to keeping your lemmings safe. Winning at CRO is no different: it’s about spotting the gaps, fixing them, and watching as your visitors flow seamlessly through your funnel.

If you want to level up your business, CRO is the “cheat code” that works every time.

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