How to Set Up — and Learn — from Experiments

HBR IdeaCast

Harvard Business Review

Leadership, Entrepreneurship, Communication, Marketing, Business, Business/management, Management, Business/marketing, Business/entrepreneurship, Innovation, Hbr, Strategy, Economics, Finance, Teams, Harvard

4.4 • 1.9K Ratings

🗓️ 4 February 2020

⏱️ 24 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Stefan Thomke, professor at Harvard Business School, says running experiments can give companies tremendous value, but too often business leaders make decisions based on intuition. While A/B testing on large transaction volumes is common practice at Google, Booking.com, and Netflix, Thomke says even small firms can get a competitive advantage from experiments. He explains how to introduce, run, and learn from them, as well as how to cultivate an experimental mindset at your organization. Thomke is the author of the book "Experimentation Works: The Surprising Power of Business Experiments" and the HBR article "Building a Culture of Experimentation."

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey everyone it's Kurt we need your help with our annual survey this is your last chance to help us get to know you so we can make idea cast even better for you
0:09.8	it's easy just go to HBR.org
0:13.0	podcast survey.
0:15.0	Again, that's HBR.org slash podcast survey.
0:19.0	And, thanks for listening. Welcome to the HBR Ideacaste from Harvard Business Review. I'm Kurt Nickish. In science, the need for experimentation is cut and
0:51.9	dry.
0:52.6	You come up with a hypothesis,
0:54.2	whether it's about how storm clouds move
0:56.5	or how cells in the body die,
0:58.5	and you set up an experiment to test it.
1:01.2	There's a method, it's called the scientific method, and you test it over and over again
1:05.6	until you're sure that it's replicable and your answers are right, or at least as right as they can
1:10.0	be until new variables come to light or the landscape changes. In business there isn't
1:16.1	currently as much experimentation. Value has been placed on experience, on the intuition of
1:22.3	managers and leaders.
1:24.0	And that's a bad thing, says today's guest.
1:26.9	Even in the most innovative industries we can think of,
1:29.7	more can be done to set up experiments,
1:31.9	test the results, and deliver better products and services
1:35.0	to customers.
1:36.0	And this goes far beyond AB testing at Tech Giants.
1:39.9	Our guest today is Stefan Tompket.
	...

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