Change Log: Unlocking the Power of Experimentation
In an era where experimentation drives innovation and growth, maintaining a structured and centralized record of all experiments is paramount. Growth teams need to understand the customer, execute on the right things, and deliver results for the business. This is where the concept of a change log for experimentation comes into play.
1. What is a Change Log for Experimentation?
A change log for experimentation is essentially a detailed and structured records of all the experiments a team or organization runs. Think of it as a diary of every hypothesis you test, timeline, experimentation design document, result you achieve and learnings you unlock. It begins from the idea backlog stage and continues through to the final results and beyond.
2. Why is it Essential?
Knowledge Base Creation:
A Change Log acts as a comprehensive knowledge base, cataloging all the experiments, metrics, cohorts, growth area, documentation including valuable insights from completed experiments and the evolution of ideas. Having a central record ensures that every team member, both present and future, can quickly understand what was tried, what worked, and what failed. Onboarding new team members, as it provides them with a wealth of knowledge and insights at their fingertips.
Measure Experimentation Program Success:
Measuring success in experimentation often hinges on more than just the number of experiments conducted. Relying solely on this metric can lead to less ambitious optimization experiments and miss out on the complete picture. To truly gauge success, it's essential to consider multiple factors in addition, like impact estimations, time to build, and comparing expected outcomes with actual results. This fosters an environment of perpetual improvement and responsibility. This not only assesses the precision in forecasting impacts and required engineering efforts but also refines future estimates, ultimately boosting the experimentation program’s success rate.
Control Tower Functionality:
The change log can also serve as a control tower, helping teams avoid collisions by providing real-time information on upcoming and ongoing experiments. It enables teams to coordinate better and streamline the experimentation process.
Enhanced Insights Sharing:
With a centralized change log, knowledge sharing among teams becomes streamlined and efficient. Team members can quickly understand the state and outcome of ongoing or completed experiments across all the growth areas without sifting through scattered data. This is vital when there are multiple growth teams, it helps leverage user learnings derived from experiments widely across the company.
Timeline Construction & Key Metrics Correlation:
A change log aids in building a timeline of past changes as necessary, allowing teams to correlate these changes with impacts on key metrics. This is essential for understanding the long-term impacts experiment launches have made and making informed decisions for future initiatives.
3. Getting Started
To facilitate a smooth transition to using change logs, here are two templates:
Ideal for a team new to experimentation, this template is straightforward and easy to use. It includes basic fields that cover the essential aspects. Use along with experimentation design document.
Airtable EVELYN (Experiment Velocity Engine Lifting Your Numbers) Template:
This comprehensive template built by Darius is for teams looking for a more sophisticated and detailed approach to documenting their experiments with better filtering capabilities and formulas.
4. Leveraging Technology
While templates are beneficial, a custom internal tool can elevate the effectiveness and avoid manual creation and maintenance of spreadsheets. Depending on resources available, size and maturity of the company, this may be valuable. Such a tool, for instance, can:
Enable Advanced Search: Easily find past experiments based on various criteria.
Highlight Key Learnings: Quickly see the main takeaways from each test to subscribers and leaders.
Visualize with Timelines: Understand the sequence of experiments and their impacts over time.
Provide a Control Tower View: Get a holistic view of all ongoing and completed experiments.
5. Conclusion
Maintaining a change log for experimentation isn't just about record-keeping; it's about harnessing the collective intelligence of your team. It's a testament to the value of every test, every insight, and every innovation. Whether you're just starting or scaling rapidly, having a structured way to capture and share learnings can make all the difference.