Overview
A CRO research planner helps a CRO lead keep research questions, sources, methods, findings, and decisions in one place instead of spreading them across meeting notes and a findings sheet.
This playbook installs a reusable Research planner table and Research brief for conversion-rate optimization work. It is built for the messy middle before a fix or A/B test: when the team knows something is off, but still needs to decide which evidence matters and what should happen next.
The workflow is deliberately narrow. Juno plans and tracks CRO research using the sources you provide, public page evidence, workspace context, and clearly labeled assumptions. It does not pretend to replace analytics, heatmaps, interviews, or experimentation tools unless you bring that evidence into the workspace.
Why you should keep conversion research decisions visible
CRO research can become oddly hard to audit. A customer quote sits in a slide, a sales objection lives in a call note, a page issue appears in a review, and the final decision gets made in a meeting nobody wants to re-summarize.
That matters because good testing and optimization depend on disciplined evidence. GOV.UK's A/B testing guidance starts with research and a clear hypothesis before test design and analysis, as described in its A/B and multivariate testing documentation. The research plan is not admin work; it is how the team avoids testing folklore.
Juno gives that plan a durable home. Each question gets a method, source, finding, confidence level, implication, status, owner, and next review date, making source gaps and ready decisions easier to spot before the next CRO meeting.
Research quality also depends on knowing what kind of evidence you have. Nielsen Norman Group's guidance on qualitative vs. quantitative research is a useful reminder that observations, themes, and metrics answer different questions. This playbook keeps those evidence types separate so decisions do not sound more certain than they are.
Step-by-step
- 1Confirm the brand or product, primary conversion goal, audience, research scope, starting questions, available source notes, constraints, and review cadence.
- 2Turn broad concerns into specific CRO research questions tied to a journey stage, conversion decision, source type, and method.
- 3Build the Research planner before deep analysis so questions, sources, findings, gaps, and decisions are recorded as the work develops.
- 4Review supplied notes, public page evidence, customer language, sales or support themes, analytics summaries, search context, and prior learnings when they are available.
- 5Capture findings with confidence, implication, owner, status, and next review date, marking private-data gaps instead of guessing.
- 6Update the Research brief with scope, assumptions, method rules, strongest findings, source gaps, and decisions made or waiting on evidence.
- 7Use the Research planner during weekly or monthly reviews to spot open questions, stale reviews, missing owners, and rows ready to become fixes, tests, or follow-up research.
Frequently asked questions
What does this replace?
It replaces a narrow conversion research plan and findings sheet. It does not replace a full experimentation platform, analytics suite, survey tool, interview repository, or project management board.
What inputs should I bring?
Bring the conversion goal, audience, research scope, and any starting evidence you trust: page URLs, survey notes, sales objections, analytics summaries, support themes, prior test results, or stakeholder questions.
Can Juno run this without private analytics?
Yes. Juno can create and maintain the planner from supplied notes, public evidence, and clear assumptions. If private analytics, session replays, heatmaps, or interview records are missing, it marks those as source gaps.
When should I run it?
Run it before a CRO review, landing page refresh, experiment planning cycle, or when research notes start drifting across tools. The weekly or monthly cadence keeps the same installed workspace current.