SVPMA: Shifting to an Experimental Mindset

Teresa Torres
www.ProductTalk.org
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Shifting to an Experimental Mindset:
The Dos and Don’ts of Hypothesis Testing

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It all starts with a good idea.

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Conﬁdence is not connected to reality.

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Conﬁdence is a symptom of coherence.

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Coherence doesn’t necessitate truth.

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Research in Motion was conﬁdent in their
secure network.

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Yahoo was conﬁdent in their start page.

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What assumptions are you making?

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Wisdom = knowledge + doubt

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Work toward your vision with conviction.

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And be prepared to be wrong.

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We need to be wise about our product
decisions.

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We can’t predict the future.

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We don’t know what’s best for our
customers.

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We don’t know

what to build next.

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And we don’t know

when we can deliver it.

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We need to update our methods
to acknowledge these truths.

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Instead of writing 50-page PRDs …

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… we need to build iteratively.

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Instead of telling our customers what’s on
our roadmaps …

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… we need to test our hypotheses in
customer interviews.

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Instead of building 10 features to
ﬁnd out only three worked …

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… we need to run 10 experiments
and only build the 3 that worked.

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What would happen if your competitors
started working this way?

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How do you shift to

an experimental mindset?

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Be prepared to be wrong.

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Test your assumptions.

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Experiment before you build.

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Know what you need to learn.

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Start with good hypotheses.

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The 5 components of a good hypothesis.

Teresa Torres
Product Consultant & Coach
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ProductTalk.org

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Let’s keep the
conversation going.

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