Why we must test!

Building a culture of experimentation

Author

Tristan Burns
September 26, 2024

READ TIME: 4 MINUTES

👩‍🔬 Testing is the purest form of data

Way too few data leaders in my network advocate experimentation.

In my view experimentation is one of the purest forms of being truly data driven. It enables practitioners to assess the likelihood of success between two or more options and to make statistically sound decisions from it.

Experimentation enables more informed decision making and helps to cultivate a culture of collaboration and curiosity across multiple teams.

Even better yet, companies that experiment out perform those who don’t on share price (see the experimenters index).

It makes a lot of sense to test.

But unfortunately, for a company to adopt experimentation into its practices often requires a seismic change in culture. And in my view, it’s largely upon the data leader to be the catalyst of change inside their organisation.

That’s you, my friend 🫵🏻

🧪 Experimentation is HARD!

Building a culture of experimentation is not easy, but it is none-the-less a worthwhile and necessary pursuit for any data leader. Whilst the specific challenges you may face will likely change from company to company, here are common challenges you may encounter:

  • Cultural resistance to change

  • Lack of data literacy and analytics skills

  • Insufficient resources and infrastructure

There is no denying, to succeed at scale, experimentation programs require an increase in capability and often, expensive investments in tools. This can be a barrier to scaling for a lot of organisations.

But building a culture of experimentation, where we look at how we might test our assumptions before diving headlong into them, is free. 

Let’s take a look:

🧬 Experimentation starts with why

As with any good drive for change, we must start with ‘why’.

The why’s of experimentation are volumous, but here are a few.

  • Facilitates and improves data driven decision making

  • Fosters a culture of innovation and adaptability: AKA evolution

  • Is the catalyst for continuous improvement and optimisation

  • Helps reduce risk  - stops us investing in/building things customers don’t want

  • Helps us to acquire a competitive advantage

  • Increases the feeling of contribution and collaboration amongst teams

As a data leader trying to kickstart an experimentation culture, communicating these goals and how achieving them can contribute to efficiency and the bottom line will be your goal. 

But how can you get started doing this? Try some of the follow approaches:

⚖️ Start small and scale gradually: Begin with small, low-risk experiments to demonstrate the value of the approach. Once initial successes are evident, you can scale the experimentation framework across more departments or processes.

🧠 Emphasise a learning mindset: Shift the focus from success or failure to learning. Encourage the gathering of valuable insights, regardless of the outcome. Highlight that every experiment provides useful data that can guide future decisions.

🛟 Create safe spaces for failure: Teams need to feel comfortable taking risks. Encourage a psychological safety net where failure is seen as a natural part of innovation. Celebrate efforts and learning from experiments.

🤝 Encourage cross-functional collaboration: Promote collaboration between teams and departments to foster diverse ideas and perspectives. Ensure that these teams share insights and results across the organisation.

🛠️ Provide the right tools and resources: Invest in the necessary tools, data infrastructure, and training to support experimentation. Employees need access to data analytics platforms, testing frameworks, and education on how to design experiments properly. Provide guidance on how to measure success and interpret results.

👩🏼‍💼 Lead by example: Leaders who openly discuss their own experiments and what they’ve learned set the tone for the rest of the organisation. If teams see leaders embracing experimentation, they’re more likely to adopt the same mindset.

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Successfully building a culture of experimentation will likely result in a whole host of positive outcomes for businesses that do so. Experimentation is a driving force for so many of the world’s top performing companies, with regard to their culture, efficiency, profits and even share prices!

If you’re not testing, what are you doing?

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