Irene Strikkers

Get to know Irene 🎙️

Can you start by painting a picture of what a typical day looks like for you? What fuels your passion for the work you do, and how does it tie into your involvement with WCEU?

For the past year and a half, I’ve been working as a data analyst at Online Dialogue, a boutique CRO agency in the Netherlands. We help organizations optimize their website for more sales, engagement, or subscriptions.

I analyze web data and other types of data to try to find out what the website visitors’ behavior looks like. We use this data to discover opportunities to help users find what they’re looking for, to speak to their motivations, and to help them make decisions. In order to do so, I work closely together with psychologists, UXers, conversion managers, and developers. This interdisciplinarity is what makes my job very enjoyable. It’s great to hear different perspectives, bounce ideas off each other, and come to the best solutions together.

Before my current job, I was Head of R&D at Yoast, the biggest SEO company in the WordPress space. Through this job, I was introduced to WordPress and its community. The first time I attended a WordCamp, I was immediately impressed by the openness and friendliness of the WordPress community.

What sparked your interest in becoming a speaker at WCEU? Was there a particular moment or experience that motivated you to share your insights with this community?

When I left Yoast, I didn’t want to say goodbye to the WordPress community forever. At the same time, I realized that I had rarely heard any talks about conversion rate optimization or experimentation at a WordCamp. That’s why I decided to apply with a talk about this topic.

For those awaiting your talk, could you give us a preview of what we can expect to learn from your talk? Any sneak peeks?

In my talk, I’ll show a more successful way to increase sales, subscriptions, or engagement of your website than following your gut feeling. The latter might work up to a certain point, but to make more impactful steps you’ll need to find out where you lose potential customers. I’ll show you how to create funnels of your customers’ journey to find out where these blockages are. Once you have identified those, it will be easier to focus on the right places where you can make the biggest impact.

Is it your first time at a WCEU or WordPress event? Any standout memories or lessons learned that you’d like to share?

After Vienna, Belgrade, Berlin, and Porto this will be my fifth WordCamp Europe. I’ve also attended WordCamp US, the WordCamp Asia meetup in 2020, some local WordCamps, and the WordPress Meetup in Nijmegen, The Netherlands.

My best memories are from the hallway track (the conversations with other attendees between sessions) and the WCEU after-parties. Every year, we tried to fit in well with the theme of the party. So I’m the proud owner of a nice dress (Vienna), a silver glitter outfit (Belgrade), a neon bathing suit and leggings (Berlin), and a princess dress (Porto).

Looking beyond the scheduled sessions, what do you hope attendees will take away from their overall experience at WCEU? How can they leverage the event to enhance their professional development or personal growth? 

I would encourage everyone to not go to talks from the early morning to the end of the day but also to roam the hallways to talk to people there. In my experience, attendees are very open to sharing what they’re doing with WordPress, and to talk about their passion. Those conversations are a good way to learn new things and to renew your own passion about all things WordPress. I tend to find it a bit nerve-wracking to open a conversation with someone I don’t know, but the conversation starter ‘So, what do you do with WordPress?’ has served me well over the years.