Growth Experimentation
Leader.
I help companies turn growth ideas into evidence-backed investment decisions. I lead Applied Experimentation at NRG Energy (Fortune 150), building a revenue-connected experimentation program across 5 energy brands. Previously at Silicon Valley Bank (Fortune 500), contributing to $1 billion in new business. $30M+ in verified impact (2025). 100+ experiments per year.
Advisory & CRO Audits available
Atticus Li is a growth experimentation leader based in Austin, TX. He helps companies decide which growth ideas are worth investing in by testing them with discipline instead of relying on opinions. He leads Applied Experimentation at NRG Energy (Fortune 150) and is the founder of GrowthLayer, an institutional knowledge platform built for experimentation teams, and the creator of Atticus Li's PRISM Method — a framework for revenue-driven experimentation. His profile is a T-shaped marketer with deep experience in growth strategy, experimentation, and marketing analytics — Bayesian and sequential testing, causal inference, behavioral economics — resting on broad, hands-on competence across the marketing stack: SEO and AEO, paid media, lifecycle, content, and product-led growth.
T-Shaped Marketer.
Deep Where It Matters.
Deep expertise in experimentation, analytics, and CRO — with working fluency across every growth channel. I evaluate tools, manage agencies, build teams, and connect tactics to revenue. Not a specialist who can't see the whole picture. A full-stack growth marketer whose strongest weapon is the scientific method.
The Vertical
10+ years. 100+ experiments per year. $30M+ in verified revenue in 2025. This is the core.
The Horizontal
Hands-on experience across every growth channel — enough to build, evaluate, hire, and manage.
What I Build With
Experimentation Platforms
Marketing & Product Analytics
Behavioral & Session Analytics
Tag Management & CDP
Data Science & Statistical Analysis
Marketing Automation & CRM
SEO & Content
Paid Media & Advertising
Design & Prototyping
AI & Development
Project & Collaboration
Enterprise & Vendor Management
Core Competencies
Timeline
The throughline: turn an idea into an evidence-backed bet, then build the thing that proves it. That's shown up as an enterprise experimentation program at a Fortune 150, and as AI-native SaaS products I've designed, built, and shipped myself — UX, user flows, front-end, and the data pipeline underneath.
NRG Energy — Lead, Applied Experimentation
2023 – Present$30M+ revenue impact. Many experiments. A win rate roughly double the industry average. Scaled from 20 to 100+ tests/year across 5 energy brands.
Silicon Valley Bank — Senior Marketing Analytics & CRO
2021 – 2023Contributed to $1B+ pipeline. Partner landing pages, email A/B testing, campaign landing pages. 32% avg conversion uplift.
Jobsolv — Founder & Principal AI Architect
2023 – PresentArchitected and shipped an AI job-matching platform from zero to 35K+ users and $80K+ revenue with $0 paid spend. Directed a 27-member team — engineering, UX/UI, and a development agency — across React, NestJS, Python, and AWS. Built the ML-driven resume tailoring and auto-apply systems myself.
GrowthLayer — Founder & Builder
2024 – PresentBuilding GrowthLayer, an institutional knowledge platform for experimentation teams — product architecture, pricing, and an automated content engine that turns test data into thought leadership.
PublishOS — Founder & Builder
2025 – PresentBuilding a content operating system that repurposes research and long-form work into SEO-ranked, E-E-A-T-compliant publishing — positioned around answer-engine and generative-engine optimization.
52 Apps in 52 Weeks — Co-Founder, Product & Growth
2024Partnered on a rapid-validation sprint building multiple SaaS products with AI-native tools — including AppScreenshotKit, built end-to-end in 24 hours with Framer and 316 users in 90 days on $0 spend. Owned product, UX, positioning, and go-to-market; co-founder owned engineering.
Myeverly.app — Founder & Product Lead
2024Designed and built a privacy-first AI companion app from concept to working prototype, running extensive user interviews to validate the concept — then made the call to sunset it once the market positioning wasn't right.
Intecular — Product Marketing Manager
Mar – Jul 2023Repositioned a multi-feature product into a single, higher-priced offering, lifting revenue 65%. Owned landing page testing, ad performance, and conversion copy through the transition.
atticusli.com — Designer & Builder
2025 – PresentDesigned and built this site's editorial/brutalist design system and content engine end-to-end with Claude Code — the same AI-native workflow used to ship enterprise experiments and SaaS products.
Things I've
Built
Jobsolv
AI-powered recruitment platform. Led a 27-member team (developers, designers, marketers). Built from zero to 35K+ users with $0 paid ad spend and 101% MoM growth. 92.3% interview success rate. 15% landing page conversion — 500% above industry average.
Visit Jobsolv (opens in new tab) B2B Content & SEO PlatformGrowthLayer
Automated content engine that generates SEO-optimized articles using A/B test data and behavioral science frameworks. Programmatic content at scale — turning experimentation insights into search-rankable thought leadership.
Visit GrowthLayer (opens in new tab) Publishing InfrastructurePublishOS
Content publishing operating system that streamlines the workflow from draft to distribution. Built to solve the operational bottleneck of scaling content across multiple channels and formats.
Visit PublishOS (opens in new tab)I Build With AI.
Every Day.
I don't just use AI tools — I build products with them, ship code with them, automate workflows, and integrate them into enterprise experimentation systems. 7 products built. 35K+ users acquired. All with AI-augmented development.
AI Coding & Engineering
AdvancedAI Reasoning & Research
AdvancedAI Design & No-Code
AdvancedAI for Growth & Experimentation
AdvancedCredentials That
Back It Up
Industry-recognized certifications in experimentation, behavioral science, and growth — not just courses completed, but frameworks I apply every day.
Conversion Rate Optimization
The industry gold standard for CRO practitioners. Covers experimentation design, statistical significance, funnel analysis, and revenue-connected optimization methodology.
Advanced Conversion Rate Optimization
Advanced testing strategies including multi-armed bandits, Bayesian analysis, sequential testing, and experimentation program governance at enterprise scale.
Digital Psychology & Persuasion
Applied cognitive psychology for digital experiences — anchoring, framing effects, loss aversion, social proof, and choice architecture for conversion optimization.
Landing Page Optimization
Data-driven landing page design, message-match methodology, attention ratio optimization, and conversion-centered design principles.
Testing Strategy
End-to-end experimentation program design — hypothesis prioritization frameworks, test roadmapping, statistical methodology, and stakeholder reporting.
Behavioral Economics
One of only 1,000 certified practitioners worldwide. Applied behavioral economics — nudge theory, prospect theory, heuristics, and cognitive bias application for marketing and product design.
Inbound Marketing
Content strategy, lead nurturing, marketing automation, and inbound methodology for scalable customer acquisition.
Foundation &
Recognition
BS, Business Economics
University of North Carolina Wilmington
Omicron Delta Epsilon — International Honor Society in Economics
National Association for Business Economics — Member
Cameron School of Business Executive Network
Bilingual
Native English and Chinese (Mandarin) — a perspective shaped by two cultures that think about commerce, trust, and decision-making very differently.
Techstars Startup Weekend Winner (2x)
Won Techstars Startup Weekend in both Wilmington, NC and Black Mountain, NC — pitching, building, and launching products in 54-hour sprints. Validated ideas through rapid prototyping and customer development.
ADPList Mentor
50+ mentoring sessions. 100% communication rating. 3+ years running. Free 1:1 mentoring for growth professionals transitioning into experimentation, CRO, and marketing analytics.
Book a sessionHow I
Lead
My leadership experience spans three distinct modes — enterprise program leadership, agency and vendor management, and hands-on recruiting at scale.
Cross-Functional Program Leadership
Led experimentation across Marketing, Product, UX, Analytics, Engineering, and agency partners for 5 national brands. Facilitated numerous cross-functional workshops and secured overwhelming executive and stakeholder buy-in — embedding experimentation culture through impact reporting and decision frameworks adopted by senior leadership.
Agency & Vendor Management
Directed a 27-member cross-functional team, including an international development agency and a Poland-based UX/UI design agency. Owned the relationships end-to-end: scoping technical requirements, sprint planning, weekly standups, code reviews, design-system governance, and delivery timelines — keeping product vision and engineering execution aligned.
Talent Identification at Scale
Sourced and interviewed 830+ freelancers; hired and managed 204+ freelancers and agencies across Upwork, Fiverr, and direct engagements — developers, designers, copywriters, editors, QA. A decade of evaluating portfolios, structuring contracts, testing talent on real deliverables, and resolving performance issues. It started with my first company, Comfort Neck, where I recruited and trained 3 interns from a 15-candidate pool and coordinated 35 freelancers.
"Leading experimentation is mostly about creating clarity: who owns intake, who owns prioritization, who owns analysis, who owns handoff — and how senior leaders make the final investment decision."
Cross-Functional
Leadership
Experimentation doesn't live in a silo. I've embedded in and partnered across every team that touches the customer journey — in regulated industries where compliance, legal review, and stakeholder buy-in are non-negotiable.
Marketing
Campaign strategy, channel optimization, budget allocation, and conversion funnel ownership. Partnered with CMOs, VPs, and marketing directors on test roadmaps tied to revenue goals.
Product
Product-led experimentation, feature adoption testing, onboarding optimization, and product analytics. Collaborated with PMs and product designers on data-informed feature decisions.
UX & Design
Behavioral research-driven UX testing, heatmap analysis, journey mapping, and design system experimentation. Trained UX teams on cognitive bias patterns and behavioral design.
Analytics & Data Science
Statistical methodology, attribution modeling, dashboard design, and measurement infrastructure. Built reporting systems that replaced 6 manual reports with automated Looker dashboards.
Engineering
Test implementation, tag management, CDP integration, and experimentation platform configuration. Bridged the gap between business hypotheses and technical execution.
Executive Leadership
C-suite experimentation reporting, ROI narratives, and program advocacy. Achieved overwhelming executive buy-in across Marketing, Product, and UX at NRG Energy.
How I Think
Psychology before tactics
Before you test anything, you need a hypothesis grounded in how humans actually make decisions. Behavioral economics gives you that foundation. Random tests give you random results.
Revenue over vanity
Click-through rates and engagement scores are not success metrics. Revenue is a success metric. Every experiment connects to the P&L — or we're measuring the wrong thing.
Systems over campaigns
A single winning test is a lucky break. A systematic experimentation program is a compounding asset. I build the infrastructure so your marketing gets smarter every quarter.
Data-informed, people-first
I hold the standard high — controlled tests, not before/after comparisons — but I also know that the best insights die in a spreadsheet if you can't bring people along. I translate data into business context, earn buy-in from stakeholders who care about revenue (not p-values), and build programs that entire organizations trust. Rigor matters. So does knowing how to use it.
The Human
Behind the Data
I believe the best working relationships start with knowing who you're working with — not just what they've done.
Dog Dad
Proud owner of a 6-year-old Texas Heeler rescue from Austin Pets Alive! — an Australian Shepherd / Cattle Dog mix who graduated from a boarding school run by a student of the master trainer who trained the Queen's Corgis.
World Traveler
14 countries and counting — China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Czech Republic, Germany, Poland, Hungary, Mexico, Costa Rica, Canada, and 43 U.S. states. Once lived as a vanlifer, traveling the U.S. and Canada in a van named Howl.
Five Cities
Lived in Kunming and Shanghai (China), San Diego, Wilmington (NC), and Austin (TX). Native in both English and Chinese — a perspective shaped by two very different cultures.
Unofficial Michelin Scout
Relentless restaurant hunter with a strange track record — I keep finding my favorite new spots a year before they earn their first Michelin star. If I recommend a place, set a reminder.
AtticusPoet
I founded <a href='https://atticuspoet.com' target='_blank' rel='noopener'>AtticusPoet</a> to serve as a compassionate resource for those navigating the complexities of relationship OCD and retroactive jealousy. My focus is on building tools that address genuine human challenges.
Three Ways In
Read the Newsletter
Lean Experiments: weekly frameworks on behavioral science, A/B testing, and revenue optimization. Applied research you can use Monday morning. Free.
Subscribe free (opens in new tab)Get Mentored
Free 1:1 sessions on ADPList for growth practitioners, analysts, and early-stage founders. Bring a specific problem — experimentation design, CRO strategy, behavioral frameworks. Leave with a clear next step.
Book a session (opens in new tab)See the Work
Case studies, methodology, and real results — how behavioral science and rigorous testing translate into revenue numbers at scale. No sanitized summaries. Real campaigns, real data.
View case studiesHow this site is written
Every article reflects Atticus's own research, experiments, and behavioral economics interpretation. Some use AI assistance for drafting — here's the editorial bar that work has to clear before it ships.
Atticus Li — and the experiments he's run
Every article is published under my byline because the experiment data, the behavioral economics interpretation, the methodology calls, and the editorial line are mine. I'm a CXL-certified CRO practitioner, one of ~1,000 Mindworx-certified behavioral economists worldwide, and I've led hundreds of A/B tests at NRG Energy, Silicon Valley Bank, and across SaaS, fintech, e-commerce, and marketplace verticals. I don't ghost-write, don't outsource to anonymous contractors, and don't publish anything I wouldn't defend in a stakeholder review.
Atticus's research, frameworks, and interpretation — with AI used as a drafting tool
The substance of every article — the experiments, the behavioral economics interpretation, the frameworks, the methodology calls — is Atticus's. AI assistance, where used, is a tool for research synthesis and prose drafting, not a content generator. Articles are produced through a multi-step pipeline he built and operates:
- Topic selection — I pick the topic from one of three sources: a running A/B test in my portfolio, a behavioral economics principle I want to interpret for practitioners, or a question that keeps coming up in mentoring calls.
- Research — Claude (Anthropic's LLM) drafts a research brief: relevant academic studies, current statistics, industry positions. I review and correct it.
- Experiment data — I supply anonymized results from my own portfolio in lift ranges, never exact percentages, never identifiable brands or page names. The behavioral interpretation of why the result happened is mine.
- Drafting — Claude produces a first draft in my voice using a system prompt that encodes my writing style, mental models, anti-patterns, and data-protection rules.
- Human review — I read every article before publishing. I rewrite sections that don't match how I'd actually frame it, kill claims I can't defend, fix anything that smells generic, and add specifics from my own experience that the AI couldn't have known.
- Publish — Only after human review does an article move from draft to published in Sanity CMS.
Why disclose this at all? Because being upfront about the writing process is the right thing to do, and because it's the difference between "AI generated this for me" (which would be misleading — the substance is mine) and "AI helped me write faster about my own research" (which is the truth). The disclosure lives here so the byline can stay focused on what actually matters: the experiments, the interpretation, and the frameworks the article is built from.
To help practitioners, not to game search rankings
This site exists because there's a gap between the academic behavioral economics literature and the day-to-day reality of running an experimentation program. I write the interpretation that connects Kahneman, Thaler, and Cialdini to the test you have to ship next quarter under a budget constraint with a stakeholder who doesn't trust statistics. If an article isn't useful to a working CRO manager, product manager, or growth lead — I don't publish it.
What every article has to clear before it ships
- Non-commodity insight — the article has to add something a generic "7 tips" piece couldn't. Usually that's a behavioral economics interpretation, a methodology distinction, or a pattern observed across many tests.
- First-hand specifics — at least one anonymized data point, lift range, or experiment observation from my own work. No second-hand case study summaries.
- Data protection — no exact percentages, no internal test IDs, no brand names, no specific page descriptions that could identify a client. Ranges and generic descriptors only.
- Intellectual honesty — if a result was inconclusive, I say so. If a behavioral principle didn't transfer to the context, I say that too. The replication crisis is real; faking certainty erodes trust.
- Practitioner usefulness — a reader should be able to apply something concrete within a week. If the article only flatters my expertise, it gets cut.
How to flag an error
If you spot a factual mistake, a misattributed study, a broken claim, or any place where the writing doesn't hold up — email me at atticus@atticusli.com with the URL and the specific line. I'll review and correct, then add a dated correction note to the article. I take this seriously; if my byline is on something, I own it.
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