Season 4, Episode 1: Mastering experimentation in consumer products (with Bill Grosso)
Sep 4, 2024
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Bill Grosso, CEO of Game Data Pros and an expert in experimentation for digital entertainment, dives into the nitty-gritty of product testing. He discusses the crucial role of experimentation in enhancing user experiences and how to integrate it effectively within product teams. The conversation highlights common pitfalls teams face and the necessity for rigorous A/B testing. Pricing strategies and the challenges of data interpretation in gaming are also examined, providing insightful strategies for marketers and developers navigating today’s dynamic landscape.
Effective experimentation in consumer products requires careful randomization of user assignments to prevent data confounding and ensure valid results.
Integrating experimentation with growth teams fosters collaboration and enhances understanding of user engagement across acquisition, retention, and monetization strategies.
Continuous skepticism and rigorous validation of experimental results are essential to avoid premature decision-making based on potentially misleading data.
Deep dives
Understanding Experimentation in Digital Products
Experimentation in digital products involves testing hypotheses through controlled trials to validate changes in user experience. This process allows developers to modify the experience for a selected group of users while measuring the outcomes to determine effectiveness. Key metrics, such as retention rates, serve as proxies for user satisfaction since 'fun' is challenging to quantify. This scientific approach helps game developers make informed decisions about enhancing their products based on data rather than intuition.
Tools for Effective Experimentation
Most gaming companies already possess the essential infrastructure to conduct experiments, including dashboards and KPIs for tracking metrics. However, successful experimentation relies heavily on properly randomizing user assignments to control and treatment groups. While off-the-shelf tools can accelerate initial efforts, custom-built systems may ultimately offer greater flexibility and control. By beginning with simple randomized testing, teams can refine their approach before considering more complex tools.
Challenges of Multiple Experiments
Running concurrent experiments introduces complexities that can obscure results and make analysis difficult. One significant issue arises when the same user participates in multiple tests simultaneously, potentially confounding data on outcomes. It is crucial for teams to track these overlaps and ensure that experiments do not interfere with one another, as they can lead to erroneous conclusions about effectiveness. Thus, it's vital to manage the flow of users effectively while considering the independent nature of each experiment.
The Role of Growth Teams vs. Holistic Approaches
The emergence of specialized growth teams within gaming companies raises questions about their integration with broader experimentation efforts, including user acquisition, retention, and monetization strategies. While growth teams target early-stage metrics to boost user retention, this separation can lead to siloed practices that overlook the interconnectedness of different user engagement areas. A more integrated approach, one that aligns growth efforts with user acquisition and monetization, may yield better overall results as it fosters collaboration and shared goals. This also allows for more consistent metrics that enhance the understanding of user lifecycle value.
Avoiding Mistakes in Experimentation
One of the most significant pitfalls teams face is a lack of skepticism toward their experimental results, leading them to prematurely implement changes without adequate validation. A common issue is that teams observe positive results but fail to verify and replicate these findings, resulting in downstream incongruences in their data. Robust experimental design demands not just initial testing but ongoing questioning of outcomes, fostering an environment of continuous improvement. Ultimately, consistent introspection on results strengthens an organization's grasp on what drives actual metrics rather than temporary anomalies.
In this episode of the Mobile Dev Memo podcast, I speak with Bill Grosso, the CEO of Game Data Pros, a consultancy that specializes in experimentation for digital entertainment. Over the course of our conversation, among other things, we discuss:
Experimentation as a concept in consumer products;
Whether experimentation should exist as a standalone team or be integrated into the workflow of a product team;
The tools needed for experimentation;
How to ensure that experiments don’t conflict with or negate each other;
Pricing experimentation;
The most severe mistakes teams make with experimentation.
Thanks to the sponsors of this week’s episode of the Mobile Dev Memo podcast:
Kayzen. A mobile-first DSP that is built to democratize programmatic advertising.
INCRMNTAL. True attribution measures incrementality, always on.
Rockerbox. Get the clarity your marketing needs and navigate your way to success with Rockerbox. Visit rockerbox.com/maze today to see what it’s all about.
Interested in sponsoring the Mobile Dev Memo podcast? Contact Marketecture.
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