How to run an Opal trial that sets you up for Optimizely 12

Most teams wait for the big platform upgrade before they start experimenting with new capabilities. 

But Opal was built for early learning. You don’t need to be on Optimizely 12 to use it – providing you are running Opti ID on your existing Optimizely version, you can run it as a standalone trial today.

Doing that gives you the insight to shape your future upgrade plan with evidence, not guesswork. 

Here’s how to do it. 

1. Start small and separate

Set up Opal as a sandbox environment. 

Pick one or two content journeys - ideally areas with frequent updates or clear metrics like product pages or campaign content. 

You’re not replacing your CMS; you’re creating a safe space to test AI-assisted creation, workflow automation, and collaboration features without disrupting BAU. 

2. Define what you want to learn

Before you start generating anything, agree on a few focused questions: 

• How does AI-assisted creation fit into our existing content workflow? 

• Where does automation genuinely save time (and where does it create noise)? 

• What metadata or tagging rules do we need for governance and reuse? 

These questions become your learning objectives, not KPIs. The goal is insight, not output. 

3. Involve real users early 

Invite your content, marketing, and governance leads to work directly in Opal. 

The biggest value comes from observing how people actually use AI in practice - where it speeds things up, where it confuses, and where policy gaps appear. 

Document those friction points; they’ll inform your governance model and training plan for the full rollout. 

4. Measure what matters

Track practical outcomes: 

• Time from brief to publish 

• Number of revisions per asset 

• AI content acceptance rate (how often drafts are used as-is vs rewritten) 

This data tells you what’s worth scaling - and what still needs human refinement. 

5. Turn findings into upgrade priorities

Once you’ve run the pilot for a few weeks, map your lessons against the upcoming v12 upgrade: 

• Which workflows should you automate? 

• What taxonomy changes are needed? 

• Which integrations (DAM, CRM, analytics) add most value? 

That way, when you move to Optimizely 12, you’re not “guessing” what to implement - you’re scaling what’s proven.