Time Is Money

Chapter 5. The Future of Performance

If I’ve done my job right, then by this point you understand that, as Internet users, our performance expectations are understandable and hardwired. You’re a convert to the idea that performance correlates to a host of user experience and business metrics. And you have a pretty good awareness of the most common performance bad guys, as well as the various technologies we’ve developed to fight them.

In this final chapter, we’re going to explore some of the emerging issues and questions in the performance space, including the following:

• How can we better understand the intersection between performance, user experience, and business metrics?

• What impact does web performance have on customer lifetime value (CLV)?

• Are we optimizing the right pages?

• Are we always measuring the right things?

• How fast is fast enough?

• How can I create a culture of performance throughout my organization?

How Can We Better Understand the Intersection Between Performance, User Experience, and Business Metrics?

Businesses need to continuously deliver seamless online experiences, but continuously delivering seamless online experiences is hard. The sheer number and diversity of devices being used today is mind-boggling, and customers expect perfect experiences on every single one of those devices, 24 hours a day.

To meet these relentless expectations, you need to see, understand, and optimize every single user action. Historically, we’ve had application performance ...