Better MarTech Starts with Better Experiments

Most martech stacks aren’t built. They sprawl. Add a tool here, another dashboard there, and suddenly no one knows what’s connected—or why.

Ana Mourão has spent her career helping marketers untangle that mess. She’s not selling silver bullets. She’s advocating for something much rarer: clear thinking and smart experimentation.

Here’s what we learned from our conversation with Ana, and why her approach might just save your stack.

First, admit what’s broken

You can’t fix what you refuse to acknowledge. Ana sees too many teams layering on tools without aligning them to real pain points–which results in more complexity, not less.

"Pain points aren’t a personal failing," she says. "They’re just signals. But too often, teams accept friction as normal—because that’s how things have always been done."

Before you buy anything new, get honest about what’s not working. Then find a few allies who feel that same friction and are open to doing things differently.

Forget transformation. Try an experiment.

Everyone wants a big martech win. But the best outcomes start small.

"One brand. One market. One workflow," Ana says. "“Run a small test that reflects a real challenge, but keeps the scope tight. If it works, scale it. If not, reassess. The point is to move forward without betting the whole farm."

Either way, you’re moving forward without risking the whole system.

For large orgs especially, this isn’t just smart—it’s survival. You build momentum through wins, not wishlists.

Stop hoarding data you’ll never use

You’ve seen it before: Teams collect oceans of data, then do... nothing.

"If your privacy policy says you’re using data to improve the customer experience, but you never act on it... why are you collecting it?"

Ana says the first step to making data actionable is content. Have a plan for how your data will personalize, optimize, or enrich user experiences. And invest in first-party data. When teams own it, they use it better.

Real creativity hides in your process

Marketers love shiny campaigns. But Ana makes the case that innovation often shows up in unsexy places: the backend.

“Getting clean data to the right place at the right time? That’s creativity,” she says. “So is designing flexible systems that can adapt to change. You need just as much imagination to build a nimble process as you do to build a brand.”

She’s seen data engineers devise surprisingly inventive solutions—not by adding more tech, but by rethinking how the pieces fit together. And that kind of creativity—rooted in curiosity and collaboration—is what keeps complex systems working.

Real creativity isn’t just in your ad copy messaging. It’s in your data architecture too.

AI gives you time. Use it wisely.

Ana’s energized by the promise of agentic AI—especially its ability to handle full-cycle automation—but she reminds us that power still needs direction.

“It’s powerful. AI can run real-time personalization tests, generate insights with a prompt, and free up tons of time,” she says. “But then you have to ask: What do we do with that free time?”

Her answer: Get strategic. Use that time to get out of dashboards and into conversations. To bring the human back to marketing. Rethink your positioning. Talk to customers. Sharpen your pricing model.

“If AI gives us time, we better use it wisely,” she says. “That’s where marketers will prove their value again—not in the tactical, but in the strategic.”

Martech doesn’t need more tools. It needs marketers who are willing to think clearly, test deliberately, and lead with curiosity.

If you’re ready to clean up your stack: Start small. Find your allies. And stay close to the work that matters.

You can connect with Ana on LinkedIn or explore her framework at theexperimentalmarketer.com.

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