May 15

Running product experiments

Experiments are not just for people in white lab coats who like to mess around with chemicals all day. They are also powerful tools that help product people cut through the uncertainty that surrounds their customer’s problems. Read on to find out more about how you can use experiments to learn about your customers and discover new solutions to their problems. White lab coat not required.

How the best tech companies run growth experiments. Experiments often identify opportunities you may not have otherwise discovered. They help you to better understand your users and give you insights on how to create more value for them. Kieran Flanagan spoke with leaders at several product-led organizations to find out how they ran successful experiments. One result of that discussion is these five pieces of advice you can use to improve your growth experiments.

(via @openviewventure)

3 Ways to run more impactful product experiments. “Do you have an open debate that is at a stalemate that could benefit from more data to inform a path forward? Not sure how to find new, impactful ideas for testing in your product?” Becca Bruggman shares three real-world examples from Optimizely’s Product team that show you how to use experiments to gather information and identify new ideas.

(via @Bexcitement)

How to pick the right tools for your experiments. Are you ready to get started with product experiments, but not sure which tool to use? Thomas Leitermann shares learnings and examples from some of the numerous experiments he ran over the past two years at Inovex. He looks at how you can learn from your mistakes, see how to get started with today’s tools, and explains why experimentation is more than A/B testing.

(via @MindtheProduct)

Run better experiments and improve your growth. With experimentation, people tend to focus on the tactics and solutions before really understanding what the problem is. You don’t experiment to figure out button colors to use, you experiment to figure out how to get more people to convert on your website. David Ly Khim explains why you should run experiments, how to best run them, his obsession over documentation, and how they help with communication. He also explains some real experiments that his team ran at Hubspot.

(via @product_led)

3 Product experiments to try now to reduce churn.  Amid the uncertainties of a global pandemic – it’s more important than ever to hang on to your existing customers. But you need to be thoughtful about the ways you approach reducing churn. If you tackle churn with discounts, you’re simply undermining the value of your product in the eye of the customer. When you experience churn, it’s usually a sign that there is something wrong with your post-registration growth process (it could be onboarding, or your engagement and retention strategy). The folks at Userpilot show how you can reduce churn in a data-driven way, by doing the right product experiments.

(via @teamuserpilot)

Kent J McDonald

About the author

Kent J McDonald writes about and practices software product management. He has product development experience in a variety of industries including financial services, health insurance, nonprofit, and automotive. Kent practices his craft with a variety of product teams and provides just in time resources for product people at KBP.media and Product Collective. When not writing or product managing, Kent is his family’s #ubersherpa, listens to jazz and podcasts (but not necessarily podcasts about jazz), and collects national parks.


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