experimentation 🔬

One thing I really like about my current team is its appreciation of experimentation. We're willing to try any organization pattern for a couple weeks to see if it's better than the one we've got. Because if its general utility, I elevate the appreciation of experimentation, and the scientific method in general, to a core value.

Conflict resolution

Experimentation is great for resolving debates; rather then conflict, let's just try something and revert if it doesn't work. I've seen something similar regarding product decisions. Provided supporting infrastructure exists, an appreciation of experimentation helps smooth product decisions.

Perhaps this reduction in conflict is due to a decrease in risk; we all may have the best intentions, but if we can only try one thing, then there's a lot of risk associated with selecting that one thing.

Change one thing at a time

A fundamental concept in experimentation is changing one thing at a time, so we can accurately determine the cause of an effect.

We need a certain amount of data to establish statistical significance. A panelist at a mobile growth meetup way back when mentioned his team only runs one experiment every two weeks.

Feedback

Thoughts? Suggestions? Hit me up @erikeldridge

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