CEO The Good – Optimization for top brands like Nike, Xerox, Adobe, The Economist & many more | Author & Speaker | 6'7" 🏀 | Jr Olympic 🥇🥋 | jonmacdonald.com | 📘 Latest Book 👉 thegood.com/oito

Every bad digital experience costs you money. My mission is simple: remove them all until conversion becomes inevitable.

I founded The Good 16+ years ago to turn user insights into revenue. We're the trusted Digital Experience Optimization advisory for household names like Adobe, Nike, Xerox, Intel, and The Economist.

Together, we've generated hundreds of millions in additional revenue by optimizing the full digital journey from first touch to retention.

I've written three best-selling books on conversion optimization and am a frequent keynote speaker at Google, Autodesk, and industry events worldwide.

Also building tools for UX researchers and consultants. Currently in beta: Clipses.ai. Turn user interview transcripts into shareable video clips in minutes. Helping teams eliminate hours of rewatching footage.

Folks will tell you I love to compete: I'm a former college basketball player (and still playing on a club travel team) and won the USA Jr Olympic gold medal in Taekwondo when I was 10. But, business is the ultimate sport.

Book a 15-minute optimization strategy call → https://thegood.com/contact/

📨 DM me to start improving the digital journey of your website or app… or to debate LeBron vs Jordan as the GOAT.

Jon MacDonald

I built my first website in 1996. Anyone can do that now in 5 minutes.

But nobody vibe coded Adobe's trust in us.

I've heard the same prediction for 16 years. WordPress will kill agencies. Then Squarespace. Then no-code tools. Now AI coding.

Each time, the pundits focus on the wrong thing. They see the interface and assume that's the product.

It never is.

The interface is maybe 5% of the value. The other 95% took years to build.

Enterprise relationships. Regulatory knowledge. Institutional expertise from hundreds of engagements. SOC 2 compliance. The phone call at 2am when something breaks.

There are five things you can't vibe code: brand trust, distribution, regulatory compliance, proprietary data, and customer relationships.

I'd add a sixth. The judgment that comes from optimizing digital experiences for Adobe, Nike, Xerox, and The Economist over 16 years.

A weekend coder can build a checkout flow. They can't tell you why it's underperforming or what to change. That takes pattern recognition from thousands of tests.

Technology always lowers the barrier to building. It never eliminates the need for expertise.

My business has grown through every "this kills that" cycle. I expect this one will be no different.

Digital Experience Optimization + AI Browser Agent Optimization + Entrepreneurship Lessons | 3x Author | Speaker | Founder @ The Good – helping Adobe, Nike, The Economist & more increase revenue for 16+ years

I've spent 16 years optimizing digital experiences for brands like Nike, Adobe, and Xerox.

But the next wave of "visitors" to their websites won't be human.

AI agents are already browsing sites, researching products, and making purchase decisions on behalf of real buyers. Most enterprise websites aren't ready for them.

Profound just raised $96M to fix that. And I'm fired up about it.

Engineers have Cursor. Lawyers have Harvey. Marketers now have Profound.

Their agents aren't just tools. They're autonomous workers that collaborate across your entire marketing team. AEO, SEO, content, PR, demand gen.

That's a massive unlock. We're talking 10x productivity potential for lean marketing teams who are already stretched thin.

Figma, Walmart, Ramp, U.S. Bank are already investing here. The enterprise demand for AI-powered marketing infrastructure is real and accelerating.

Congrats to the Profound team. Answer Engine Optimization is one of the fastest-moving categories in marketing right now, and the brands that figure this out early will have a massive edge.

More on the raise 👉 https://lnkd.in/gtAGfJ5E

I spent 16 years fixing the same conversion failures for Nike, Adobe, and The Economist. But I never realized I was doing product research.

Every engagement at The Good followed a pattern:

A brand calls. Visitors aren't converting. We dig in, find the friction, and optimize it away. Then the next brand calls with the exact same problems: Broken onboarding. Confusing pricing pages. Checkout flows that leak revenue at every step.

After a few hundred of these, something shifted. I stopped seeing individual client problems and started seeing product opportunities.

That realization built The Good Ventures.

UserInput was born from watching brands waste weeks waiting for user testing results they needed in days.

Clipses came from watching researchers spend entire afternoons hunting through interview footage to find one quote. We had the same problem internally.

PredictiveAX came from an even stranger pattern. We'd optimize a site for human visitors, then watch AI agents completely fail on the same pages. Different user. Same site. Opposite outcomes.

Every product in the portfolio started as a manual fix we repeated too many times. The pattern recognition from client work was the market research.

Most founders build first, then hunt for customers. Consultants have the opposite problem. We already have validated pain. We just need to build.

If you keep solving the same problem across different clients, you already have what most founders spend years searching for: validated demand.

I watched COVID nearly destroy 11 years of building The Good. But that crisis built something better.

In 2020, our services business all but shut down for a quarter. Clients froze budgets overnight. Projects vanished.

One revenue stream. One point of failure.

I'd spent a decade helping brands reduce risk through optimization. Testing small changes. Measuring results. Never betting everything on one idea.

Yet my own company was one giant bet.

In 2021, I launched The Good Ventures. A portfolio of small, focused products. Each born from patterns we kept seeing across client work.

No massive funding rounds. No 18-month builds. Small bets with clear metrics and fast feedback.

Jeff Bezos built Amazon's dominance through thousands of small experiments, not moonshots. I applied that same principle to venture building.

Some of our bets took off. Others taught expensive lessons. The portfolio absorbs both.

My EO forum helped me see this clearly. Several founders ran diversified businesses. They weathered downturns that nearly broke mine.

One revenue stream feels like focus.

It's actually fragility.

Diversify like you'd optimize: small bets, real data, and the willingness to kill what isn't working.

I laughed at this LinkedIn reply. But Okta data shows 350 SaaS apps per enterprise.

The reply: "I can now create the same tool in about a day. SaaS is over."

This take is everywhere right now. B2B SaaS stocks lost $1 trillion in value this year. The narrative feels convincing.

The data tells a different story.

Bureau of Economic Analysis numbers show corporate spending on self-built software dropped from 50% to just 15%.

Companies don't want to build tools. Even when they can.

Because building is the easy part. Maintaining, securing, updating, supporting, and scaling is where the real work lives.

That "one day" to build becomes one year to get SOC 2 certified. Two years to earn enterprise procurement approval. Five years to build the integration ecosystem customers depend on.

The average large company runs 350-400 SaaS apps because each one solved a problem they didn't want to own.

It's all been said before... WordPress was going to replace agencies. No-code was going to replace developers. AI is going to replace SaaS.

Each prediction confuses the ability to build with the ability to operate.

SaaS isn't dying. The bar for earning enterprise trust is just getting higher.

I got to be one of five returning guests who interviewed Sani for the No Hacks 5-year anniversary episode.

Five years. 218 episodes. Zero hacks.

That didn't happen by accident. It happened because Sani has spent five years doing the work, sharing what he learns, and earning trust the hard way.

Slobodan is one of the smartest people I know when it comes to the agentic web. He's also one of the most generous with his time and knowledge.

We're building PredictiveAX together on the side, helping companies prepare their websites for AI browser agents. Working alongside him has been one of the highlights of my career. 

Listen to this episode. It's packed with insights on where the agentic web is headed and what you need to do about it now.

Congrats on 5 years, Sani 🎉

We haven’t quite figured out how AI understand and uses the web we built for ourselves. I’m trying to do that. | Keynote speaker | Host of the No Hacks podcast (200+ eps)

After five years and 218 episodes I couldn't think of a better way celebrate than letting other people ask the questions for once.

I invited five previous guests to interview me for the anniversary episode. Kelly Wortham, Iqbal Ali, Talia Wolf, Jon MacDonald, Shiva Manjunath. Five different people, five different angles on the agentic web. One of them tried to convince me the whole thing is overhyped. (It didn't work)

Here's what kept coming up across all five conversations:

The basics are the strategy. A fully functional website built for humans gets you 80-90% ready for AI agents. Accessibility, semantic HTML, schema, page speed. The stuff you've been putting off? That's optimization now.

AI agents are already between users and websites. Chrome has 3 billion users and started shipping Gemini. Apple is putting AI into every device. There will be an AI layer in front of every interaction. Your website needs to be discovered, cited, and usable by that layer.

WebMCP is one of those things that could change everything. Right now it takes an AI agent 3-5 minutes to fill a basic web form. WebMCP gives agents a clean interface to your front end. It's still early, but if it lands as a standard, every website can become an agentic website.

The rankings model is dead. Prompting ChatGPT a hundred times and averaging your position to 4.7 is not measurement. Real tracking is just arriving. Bing launched AI analytics in beta last week. Google will have to follow.

Five years of this podcast and the message hasn't changed. No hacks. Just do it well. The difference is that now the cost to not doing it is higher.

Link in comments.

Every SaaS growth guide tells you to run A/B tests, offer free trials, and iterate quickly.

But what if your users are patients whose data you can't touch? Or bank customers protected by strict compliance rules?

I've watched too many regulated SaaS leaders give up on optimization entirely, believing their constraints make growth impossible. They see Canva and Spotify's success stories and think, "That could never be us."

They're half right.

Traditional product-led growth won't work when system failures mean massive fines or when your HR platform needs enterprise-wide rollout to function.

But here's what we discovered: You can validate hypotheses and optimize experiences before they ever touch your production environment.

Our research shows AI-powered heatmaps can predict user behavior with 92% accuracy, without requiring any actual user data. Lookalike user testing reveals friction points without exposing sensitive information. Rapid experimentation validates ideas before a single line of code changes.

It's off-site, experiment-led growth. Same insights, different methods.

Healthcare software. Fintech platforms. Government contractors. They're all growing within their constraints.

Your compliance requirements don't have to be growth blockers. For the full breakdown of tactics and implementation steps, check out the article below.

View newsletter: Digital Journey Insights

The traditional growth playbook falls short when compliance, privacy, and regulations limit your ability to experiment or follow product-led growth pr

Open article: Regulated SaaS Companies Need a Different Approach to Growth. What Actually Works? by Jon MacDonald • 8 min read

Regulated SaaS Companies Need a Different Approach to Growth. What Actually Works?

Helping high-achieving leaders unlock their highest levels of performance | World-Renowned Leadership Coach | TEDx Speaker | Top 100 Most Dynamic Leader | Podcast Host | Former College Athlete

Rob doesn’t coach average people. He works exclusively with high-performing individuals ready to shatter limits, rewrite their inner narratives, and scale new peaks fast.

With a foundation in elite performance and a global coaching footprint, Rob brings unmatched depth and velocity to personal transformation. Whether he’s coaching C-suite leaders, Olympic gold
medalists, or rising entrepreneurs, Rob unlocks breakthrough results that stick. In his world, success isn’t surface-level–it’s internal, behavioral, and lasting.

Rob’s background is as rigorous as his coaching style. He’s an MIT-trained engineer, a former NCAA Academic All-American, and an athlete who represented Canada on the national water polo team. But
it’s his intuitive precision, grounded emotional intelligence, and no-BS approach that make his sessions catalytic. Many clients experience measurable breakthroughs in their very first session.

He’s coached the CIO of IDEO through a high-stakes job transition resulting in speaking invites at top tier conferences like Fast Company’s Innovation Festival and Web Summit’s Collision. 

He’s helped a once-stagnant $3M business scale to $11M in six months. He’s guided top executives from founders to gold medal Olympians out of paralysis and into peak performance.
His impact has been recognized on global stages, including a high impact TEDx talk in Kumamoto, Japan, addressing Japan’s devastating workplace suicide epidemic.

Rob Kalwarowsky

"Rob, I am so grateful I can meet with someone as successful as you."

Sounds great, right?

Nope, immediately, my inner critic piped up: "If they only knew what a loser you are."

Has that ever happened to you?

Many of the people you idolize, the ones who have achieved the absolute most, are operating from a place of deep pain and shame. Internally, they feel like they are never good enough. They feel unaccepted, unheard, and out of control. So, parts of them drive them to achieve at an elite level just so they do not have to feel that shame.

That is exactly what sent me into depression.

I was programmed to achieve early in life. I felt that if I did not win, I did not belong. That programming drove me to the Canadian National Team and to graduate from MIT. On paper, I had a "successful life" ahead of me.

Until it all came crashing down.

I ended up in a job where I could not succeed. Because my entire identity was built on being the guy who achieves, the failure was not just professional. 

It was catastrophic.

I became depressed. I questioned my decisions, my purpose, and, ultimately, if my life had any value at all.  

The internal battle was chaos every single day. My inner critic kept pushing me down because I was not winning. Because I was, in its eyes, a failure and a loser.

Eventually, I tried to end it all.

It took a long time to heal. It took therapy, coaching, medication, and a total overhaul of my identity. It took cultivating a support system and learning how to lead my own internal system before I could ever hope to lead others.

But before I could heal, it started with the hardest thing that I've ever done.

I texted a friend and said, "I need help".  

And it took me 9 months of suicidal thoughts and deep depression to do that.

I am sharing this because leadership is not about being superhuman. It is about being human.

If your identity is tied to your last "win," you are a bottleneck in your own business, in your life and in your happiness.

It's living with a ticking timebomb in your mind.  It's not if it will go off, it's when.

That's the power of what Shawn Lesser has built with THE REAL Mental Health Foundation.  It brings people together where we can skip the surface level stuff and have REAL conversations.

Just like how we were hurt by the actions or inactions of others, we heal through others.

Let's come together and support each other so we can all thrive through this time of unprecedented chaos.

Christopher Pitt MBA Benjamin Ulrich Geoffrey B. Sargeant, CFP® Mark Fujiwara Shawn Nason Cory Warfield William Spire Marc Nicholson David Walsh Nicolas Grundmann Dan Popovic Jonathan Dubois Brian Mann

MIT Engineer turned Exec. Coach who applies neuroscience & strategy that unlocks true growth for executives & entrepreneurs

"The difference between an ordinary leader and an extraordinary one is the ability to maintain executive functioning while under extreme psychological load." Wayne Chappelle, founder of PsyOPTIMAL.

What does it take to perform at the highest stakes?

Wayne spent 15 years in Air Force Special Operations, working with elite operators and drone pilots in remote combat environments. Today, he applies those same high-stakes psychological principles to the NBA and the corporate boardroom. We explore "The Substance of Performance" and how to bridge the gap between technical excellence and world-class resilience.

Link to the interview in the comments.

#executivecoaching #mindsetcoaching #leadershipcoaching  Bryan Fetzer

You work hard day after day.  You produce great results.  You keep your head down because your results will speak for themselves.

But then you start seeing less talented, less hardworking people get your dream job, more opportunities and more money.

You feel confused, you feel betrayed, you feel frustrated.

And ultimately, you start blaming yourself for not being successful, not achieving your goals, failing on your dreams.

I've been there.

Here's the truth.  "Just work hard and your work will speak for itself" is a lie.

Achieving your goals, getting promoted, having more success has a pattern, it has a system.

Check out the Joel Beasley | Modern CTO podcast for more and DM me "HARD WORK" and I'll send you the Power & Influence Playbook with the exact system that I use with C-suite executives, entrepreneurs and Olympic Gold medalists to achieve their biggest goals.

Joel Beasley Josh Pawelczyk

#executivecoaching #keynotespeaker #goals

Do you think the world is getting more chaotic for founders and entrepreneurs?

I've been coaching founders every week. Zoom calls. Boardrooms. Late-night texts from CEOs who can't sleep. And I'm hearing the same thing over and ov

Open article: Do you think the world is getting more chaotic for founders and entrepreneurs? by Rob Kalwarowsky • 2 min read

Life's most valuable lessons often emerge from the most challenging experiences.  Wayne Chappelle shares his wisdom with us.

Similar to how diamonds are formed under immense pressure and heat, our personal growth is forged through adversity. These difficulties, when approached with purpose, can cultivate profound strength and resilience.

This principle mirrors the psychological sciences: it is through confronting pain and hardship, rather than avoiding it, that we can emerge as stronger, more capable versions of ourselves. Embracing these moments can transform trauma into a powerful catalyst for growth.  

PsyOPTIMAL Bryan Fetzer

#executivecoaching #mindsetcoaching #leadershipcoaching

"You miss 100% of the shots you don't take." Wayne Gretzky

Most leaders hear that quote and nod. Then they go back to their desks and continue to do what they've always done.

Have you ever held back from asking for exactly what you want? Have you watched a promotion or a high-stakes sale go to someone else because you were waiting for the right moment?

Upgrading your internal operating system is not magic. It is not a mystical process where you instantly manifest your dreams.

It is a behavioral shift that increases your "Shot Volume."

When you resolve the internal friction of your inner critic, you start taking more shots. You ask for the raise. You command the promotion. You close the sale. You volunteer for the special project. You pitch the TEDx talk.
You start making asks day in and day out.

Why does this work? It is not "woo woo" manifestation. 

It is neuroscience and math.

Research shows that 95% of the decisions you make each day are governed by your subconscious. If your internal operating system believes that you are unworthy of a goal, or that rejection is a catastrophic failure, your brain will trigger a freeze response.

You will literally stop yourself from taking the shot to protect yourself from the perceived threat.

But when your subconscious is programmed for mastery, it no longer hesitates. It acts in accordance with the goal.

Even the greatest baseball players hit .350. Steph Curry shoots 42% from three. You will not get a "Yes" on every single ask.

But here is the engineering reality: If you double your number of asks, even with a 75% failure rate, your total volume of wins skyrockets.

This is not fluffy. It is a designed sequence.

It's math.

Eventually, the volume of your attempts will move the needle closer to your goals. Mastery is simply the willingness to keep the engine running while others are frozen at the starting line.

I help technical founders and C-Suite executives upgrade their mindset so they can increase their shot volume and dominate their market.

If you are ready to stop being the bottleneck in your own success, DM me "POWER" to secure a strategy session for my next 3-month intensive.
You are human. It is time you started playing the numbers.

#ExecutiveCoaching #MindsetCoaching #EntrepreneurCoaching

This won’t be for everyone…

But if you’re a founder or entrepreneur, I’m hosting a…

This won’t be for everyone… But if you’re a founder or entrepreneur, I’m hosting a… Free 3-day event for founders who are done waiting for the storm t

Open article: RSVP Please by Rob Kalwarowsky • 2 min read

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The Battle

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