SVPMA: Shifting to an Experimental Mindset

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

@ttorres
It all starts with a good idea.

@ttorres
Conﬁdence is not connected to reality.

@ttorres
Conﬁdence is a symptom of coherence.

@ttorres
Coherence doesn’t necessitate truth.

@ttorres
Research in Motion was conﬁdent in their
secure network.

@ttorres
Yahoo was conﬁdent in their start page.

@ttorres
What assumptions are you making?

@ttorres
Wisdom = knowledge + doubt

@ttorres
Work toward your vision with conviction.

@ttorres
And be prepared to be wrong.

@ttorres
We need to be wise about our product
decisions.

@ttorres
We can’t predict the future.

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

@ttorres
We don’t know

what to build next.

@ttorres
And we don’t know

when we can deliver it.

@ttorres
We need to update our methods
to acknowledge these truths.

@ttorres
Instead of writing 50-page PRDs …

@ttorres
… we need to build iteratively.

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

@ttorres
… we need to test our hypotheses in
customer interviews.

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

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

@ttorres
What would happen if your competitors
started working this way?

@ttorres
How do you shift to

an experimental mindset?

@ttorres
Be prepared to be wrong.

@ttorres
Test your assumptions.

@ttorres
Experiment before you build.

@ttorres
Know what you need to learn.

@ttorres
Start with good hypotheses.

@ttorres
The 5 components of a good hypothesis.

Teresa Torres
Product Consultant & Coach
!
{
ProductTalk.org

@ttorres
Let’s keep the
conversation going.

Recommended