(2016-01-31) Torres Why You Arent Learning As Much As You Could From Your Experiments

Teresa Torres: Why You Aren’t Learning As Much As You Could From Your Experiments - Product Talk

When we do have theories generated through inductive discovery (say through design thinking or customer development interviews), we aren’t explicit about our inductive theory. We don’t use it to guide our subsequent experiments.

Applying Reflective Thinking to Product Discovery (Reflective Thought)

Suppose you are developing an app to help people set and track progress toward their goals. Someone on your team suggests that New Year’s would be a good time to acquire new customers.

Katy Milkman, an assistant professor at the Wharton School who studies behavioral economics, asked this very question. Based on the popularity of New Year’s resolutions she posited what she called her “Fresh Start” theory. From a collection of facts—the behavior of many people—she posited a theory—that people are more likely to set goals at the New Year because they consider it a fresh start.

if this were true what else (what other specific instances of this theory) might I expect to see?

she mined gym attendance data and found that people don’t just go to the gym more often in January, they also go more often at the beginning of the month and around their birthdays.

As a product manager, this learning is much more actionable

In my Map the Challenge course, which is now open for applications, my students spend six weeks exploring the problem space, learning how to make their implicit theories explicit