Positive Experiments #3
Experimentation = innovation? The bear case against good ideas and starting each day with yourself as a growth hack.
Growth Experiments
Experimentation = Innovation?
Is a culture of experimentation the same as a culture of innovation?
If so, what does that mean exactly? How do you measure success?
I thought those to be the same, then I heard Chad Sanderson's take.
This is what I have on my knowledge base:
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A culture of experimentation is a culture of science within the company.
Meaning that when we are making a claim about the world, we challenge ourselves to point to some evidence, usually statistical evidence, that backs up those claims.
A culture of innovation is a culture of seeking risks and taking chances.
Meaning that we are constantly pushing boundaries and enabling groups of people to solve problems in counterintuitive ways.
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I got this reference from the CRO Cafe episode on "B2B experiments on low traffic & building your own platform".
Guido's material supports a common language for the industry.
Chad also had great participation in the 1000 Experiments club, check here. The podcast led by Marylin Montoya for AB Tasty.
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Culture of experimentation
Fabian's work does a great job defining the different stages of a culture of experimentation with their work @ Exp Growth and It Takes a Flywheel to Fly.1
In iTech, we use the flywheel model to prioritize chapter initiatives as it clarifies where to act to accelerate momentum.
The culture maturity framework helps to visualize the potential of each area. I used it in the past as a communication tool and received great feedback.
Culture of innovation
So I researched the culture of innovation. I started at HBR's The Hard Truth About Innovative Cultures.
Then I mesh up the core values of innovation that HBR suggested with what Forbes suggested. Here you have it:
Clear goal setting.
Tolerance for Failure but No Tolerance for Incompetence.
Willingness to experiment but highly disciplined.
Psychologically Safe but Brutally Candid. Feedback is frequent.
Collaboration but with Individual Accountability.
Flat but Strong Leadership. Absence of unnecessary bureaucracy.
Open communication systems.
My conclusion
Experimentation is part of the innovation journey.
Innovative companies are constantly experimenting.
Companies that run experiments are not necessarily innovative. In my experience, they’re willing to test but lack discipline.
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I wonder if innovation sets a new horizon of career development for experimenters.
Innovation from Latin innovate — make changes in something established, especially by introducing new methods, ideas, or products.
Q: What do you think? Experimentation = Innovation? Did I change your mind?
A twist of stock market
It’s all about the vision
For a long time I knew what I wanted to do I just couldn't see it.
So what's the vision?
Where are we trying to reach?
How does it look like in two to three years? How do you measure it?
Having the vision is difficult. Defining it in measurable terms is part of the trouble.
Communicating the vision and bringing people on a journey is mission-critical.
Steve Jobs had a vision for the Apple stores. Critics couldn’t visualize the story.
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This thought is coming from 32 hours of audiobook during the last Think Week. I went through Steve and Elon's life journeys.
I learned that listening to biographies is great while on the plane waiting for the final destination.
The bear case against the best stocks
“Maybe it’s time for Steve to stop thinking quite so differently,” business week wrote in a headliner that read, “Sorry Steve, here’s why Apple stores won’t work.”
Apple's former CFO Joseph Graziano was quoted saying:
“Apple’s problem is that still believes the way to grow is serving caviar in a world that seems pretty content with cheese and crackers.”
On May, 19th 2001, the first Apple Store opened in Tysons Corner, Virginia, with a huge Think Different poster featuring John Lenon and Yoko Ono holding flowers.
The skeptics were wrong.
What started at 250 visitors per week would reach 5400 per week three years later in 2004.
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Bears sound smart in the present just to be proved foolish by visionary bulls that make money in the future.
Today, I see this bear cloud around Facebook (FB) and Alibaba (BABA). This is by no means financial advice.
Q: What are you optimistic about that most are skeptical?
Sprinkled with positivity
Start with yourself.
Start with yourself.
My best routine ever. I will show you how I do it.
The first hour and a half of each day I do me.
I might go to the gym, I might stay home and study something, I might read.
It doesn’t matter as long as I do me and start with myself.
Data from growing 1% every day from the past week
Here I’m filtering all activities I tag with #MorningMe on my TimeUlar tracking setup.
Consistency and flow
I look at two things:
Am I being consistent on a daily basis or overdoing it on the weekends to compensate for the average?
Am I allowing deep work in this routine? What’s the current avg. time per entry?
The wonders of the compound effect
I posted a while ago about the compound effect of 150 hours spent studying from Reforge programs.
I love to visualize how the daily effort grows over time. How much time I invested in myself on a weekly and cumulative basis. It’s fascinating.
I call this aggregated metric 1% better every day. It includes time spent studying, reading, and taking care of my body and mental health.
Grow every day is one of my personal values that dictates important life decisions.
All returns in life, weather in wealth, relationships, or knowledge, come from compound interest.
Handpicked from other brilliant minds
This month I discovered Naval Ravikant
I listened to this one twice, so I had to bring it to you.
It strikes me the fact that I haven’t heard about Naval (@naval) before, the Indian-American entrepreneur and investor, co-founder, chairman, and former CEO of AngelList.
I enjoy listening to his thoughts on growth, wealth, stoicism, and meditation.
I started with Tim Ferris #97 (2015 episode wow) while walking down the Algarve coast in Portugal. In the same week, I binge listened to everything from this playlist.
Then I found myself reading and re-reading his famous Twitter thread How to Get Rich (without getting lucky).
Update prior beliefs
It's healthy to question assumptions and challenge the status quo with experiments, for life or business.
Updating prior beliefs with new information is a growth mindset, for life or business.
That's an excellent read from Veritasium on Bayes theory.
The example of false positives for a disease couldn't be more on point, and it's a 2017 video.
I’ve been working on
This Bayes from zero to hero study case.
My product manager understands test analysis better, and the team had better follow-up questions when I report results as "the probability of beating the control."
These are the questions I focused on answering step-by-step:
> Can we test the website with 4K weekly unique users?
> How to run a test with a small sample size?
> How to know when to stop a bayesian test?
> How do I decide on the sample size for Bayesian analysis?
> How to use a bayesian calculator for ab tests?
> How to choose bayesian priors?
> What is the difference for weak priors?
> What is the probability of our variant being better than the control?
> How is Bayesian analysis used in decision-making?
Meta-analysis — October 2021
659 hours tracked;
19 days traveling;
37 hours reading or listening to audiobooks;
11 hours spent studying financial market;
14 hours producing content;
12 hours networking.
Was it worth your time reading? If so, here’s my last CTA.
I’m curious how word of mouth can be impactful leveraging this newsletter. I will share word-of-mouth calculations in future Meta-analysis.
There's a white paper available which is a great read as well, check it here.