$300K annual savings: replacing the AB testing contract

Problem

When I started at AEO, the AB testing program was outsourced to Brooks Bell. The relationship worked — but it cost the business roughly $300K a year, and most of the institutional knowledge lived outside the company.

Approach

I joined the AB testing initiatives as a contributor, learning the program from the inside while working alongside Brooks Bell. Once I'd absorbed enough of the practice, I quietly took on more of the workload — eventually shouldering it fully. The shift was gradual and evidence-based: I wasn't lobbying to end the contract, I was demonstrating that the in-house alternative could carry the load.

Once the business partners saw the throughput and quality holding (or improving) under in-house ownership, the decision to terminate the contract became obvious.

Outcome

• ~$300K in annual cost savings from terminating the Brooks Bell contract
• AB testing knowledge moved fully in-house — the foundation that later became the Analytics & Web Optimization team
• Established the precedent that in-house experimentation was not only viable but preferable for AEO's tempo

What this says about how I lead

Build vs. buy isn't a slogan — it's a context-dependent choice. In this case, the in-house build was right because AEO's roadmap demanded a tempo no agency could match. The career-defining lesson was that proving capability quietly is a more credible argument than pitching it loudly. The numbers and the throughput made the decision for everyone.