HBR IdeaCast

How to Set Up — and Learn — from Experiments

Feb 4, 2020

Stefan Thomke, a Harvard Business School professor and author of "Experimentation Works," delves into the power of business experiments. He argues that companies often rely too heavily on intuition instead of empirical data. Thomke highlights how even small firms can benefit from experimentation and shares strategies for cultivating an experimental mindset. He emphasizes the dangers of decision-making from executives without data support and discusses fostering a culture that encourages innovation through testing and learning.

23:51

Creator website

Episode guests

Stefan Thomke

AI Chapters

Episode notes

Intro

2min

The Power of Experimentation in Business

13min

Overcoming Decision-Making Pitfalls in Business Experimentation

3min

Cultivating a Culture of Experimentation

7min

The Power of Experimentation in Leadership

2min

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."

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