measure-experiment-results

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Experiment Results

An experiment results document captures what happened when you tested a hypothesis, including statistical outcomes, segment analysis, learnings, and clear recommendations. Good results documentation turns individual experiments into organizational knowledge that improves future decision-making.

When to Use

• After an A/B test or experiment reaches statistical significance
• When an experiment is ended early (for any reason)
• To communicate findings to stakeholders who weren't involved
• During decision-making about whether to ship, iterate, or kill a feature
• To build a repository of learnings that inform future experiments

Instructions

When asked to document experiment results, follow these steps:

1. Summarize the Experiment Provide context: what was tested, when it ran, how much traffic it received. Link to the original experiment design document if one exists.

2. Restate the Hypothesis Remind readers what you believed would happen and why. This frames the results interpretation.

3. Present Primary Results Show the primary metric outcome clearly: what were the values for control and treatment? Include statistical significance (p-value), confidence intervals, and sample sizes. Be honest about whether results are conclusive.

4. Analyze Secondary Metrics Present guardrail metrics that ensure you didn't cause unintended harm. Note any secondary metrics that moved unexpectedly.both positive and negative.

5. Segment the Data Look for differential effects across user segments (platform, tenure, plan type, etc.). Sometimes overall results mask important segment-level insights.

6. Extract Learnings What did you learn beyond the numbers? Include surprising findings, questions raised, and implications for the product hypothesis. Negative results are valuable learnings.

7. Make a Recommendation Be clear: should we ship, iterate, or kill? Support the recommendation with the evidence. If the decision is nuanced, explain the trade-offs.

8. Define Next Steps Specify what happens now.engineering work to ship, follow-up experiments, metrics to continue monitoring, or documentation to update.

Output Format

Use the template in references/TEMPLATE.md to structure the output.

Quality Checklist

Before finalizing, verify:

• [ ] Statistical methods and significance are clearly stated
• [ ] Confidence intervals are included (not just p-values)
• [ ] Segment analysis checked for differential effects
• [ ] Secondary/guardrail metrics are reported
• [ ] Learnings go beyond just the numbers
• [ ] Recommendation is clear and actionable
• [ ] Negative or inconclusive results are reported honestly

Examples

See references/EXAMPLE.md for a completed example.