Mark McGhee declared his Motherwell side's late victory at Rugby Park a bonus after experimenting again with his squad.
McGhee handed starts to winger Lionel Ainsworth and strikers Scott McDonald and Theo Robinson for the first time in his second reign at Fir Park but it was a substitute, Louis Moult, who snatched the only goal of the game with three minutes left.
Moult, who dropped to the bench along with Wes Fletcher, poked the ball into the corner from 10 yards as Kilmarnock desperately defended an 87th-minute throw-in from next to the corner flag.
McGhee said: "Of course the three points are the be-all end-all I suppose but I'm still on a learning curve.
"I took two strikers out and put the other two in to take the opportunity to learn as much as I can as quickly as I can.
"During that process, to come away from home and get a win here is a bonus in a sense."
Motherwell had lost four consecutive away games in the Ladbrokes Premiership under Ian Baraclough following their opening-day win at Inverness so four points from two trips, following last week's draw at Aberdeen, represents an excellent return for McGhee.
"I said at half-time, if it's nothing each then we'll look at why we didn't get a goal but we don't lose the game trying to win the game," he said.
"We had a discipline and a shape about us. It was a fairly basic shape, 4-4-2 at times, 4-4-1-1.
"The two wide players worked fairly well, the back four competed and handled their forwards really, really well, and gave us the platform to win the game."
After a first half lacking in goalmouth action, Motherwell dominated the opening stages of the second half but could not trouble Jamie MacDonald.
But Kilmarnock looked the likelier team after that with Connor Ripley saving well from Kallum Higginbotham and both Josh Magennis and Greg Kiltie coming close.
Killie boss Gary Locke said: "It was a scrappy game at times but I felt it was always a game we dominated.
"I thought if there was one team that was going to win the game it would be us, but I'm disappointed to lose such a late goal. It was a scrappy goal. I think that was probably their only shot on target the whole game."
Locke appeared frustrated with referee Bobby Madden's display but he refused to criticise the official. The home side were especially upset when Magennis was booked for diving following a Stephen McManus challenge, after Craig Slater had rolled the loose ball into the path of Rory McKenzie.
"I've not seen the incident again but it looked to me we had a really good opportunity to score," Locke said.
"Slates has played the pass a wee bit heavy but I'm certainly not looking at Josh getting booked for diving. I was more looking at the fact we might have scored if he had played on.
"But if he thinks Josh has dived, there's not a lot I can do about it."
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