#CH2026: Jorden Lentze
Biography
As optimizers we love iteration. We improve some copy. Simplify a flow. Remove friction. Run another test. Learn. Repeat. But at some point a difficult question appears: How do you know when iteration is no longer enough?
Jorden Lentze was asking questions like that long before most of us were. Jorden was actually one of the very first Dutch speakers on the Conversion Hotel stage, presenting back at #CH2015. At the time he worked at Google as Conversion Industry Manager Benelux, advising advertisers how to improve conversion performance and get more value from their digital investments.
I already knew Jorden from before that, from his time at ABN AMRO. What immediately stood out was his curiosity. He always wanted to understand why things worked, why people made certain decisions, and whether there might be a better way. A true optimizer, but more importantly, a great human being who even became part of the Conversion Hotel volunteer crew!
Back in 2015, Jorden spoke about finding inspiration outside our own discipline, because the quality of your ideas defines the impact of your results. Fast forward eleven years. After Google, Jorden joined Booking.com, where he has now spent nearly a decade working as a product manager across ecommerce, mobile apps, room selection, and reviews. If there is one organization in the Netherlands that understands experimentation at scale, Booking is certainly part of that conversation.
Eleven years ago, Jorden warned us that there is no local maximum, just a limit to your creativity. You can become so focused on improving what exists that you stop seeing what could exist. Which makes me curious. Does Booking still rely purely on iteration? Or do they sometimes take bigger leaps? Maybe even redesign entire experiences? Jorden knows the answer.
How do you know when it’s time to stop polishing the current experience and rethink it? How do you make a bigger bet without throwing away everything you’ve learned through experimentation? And how do you make sure that bigger bet doesn’t simply become another local maximum?
Jorden, welcome back to the Conversion Hotel stage. Eleven years after your first appearance on Texel! Not back as crew, but as a keynote speaker, and I love the honesty of the story you are going to bring to #CH2026. As you told me: “I ended up making many of the mistakes I used to warn others about…”
I’m looking forward to your keynote which will be Demystifying Bigger Bets.
Founder & host of The Conference known as Conversion Hotel