Ronny Kohavi and GrowthBook cover the A/B testing best practices for designing experiments that drive long-term growth. | Growthbook Blog

In a webinar hosted by GrowthBook, Ronny Kohavi, a renowned figure in computer science and experimentation, alongside Luke Sonnet, delved into the principles of designing experiments for long-term growth. They emphasized the critical role of experimentation in shifting decision-making from intuition to evidence-based processes, highlighting the importance of setting clear success metrics and understanding the potential for high failure rates. Kohavi and Sonnet discussed the necessity of defining Overall Evaluation Criteria (OECs) to guide experimentation and avoid flawed decision-making, using real-world examples from companies like Airbnb and Bing to illustrate how poor metrics can lead to misguided strategies. They warned against "shipping flat," or implementing changes despite inconclusive experimental results, as this can lead to significant resource wastage. The speakers advocated for a culture shift from celebrating shipping to celebrating learning, positioning experimentation as a tool for smarter, faster growth through a structured framework that aligns short-term metrics with long-term goals. They also stressed the importance of defining shipping criteria before experiments to eliminate bias and ensure consistent decision-making.

Use this post, company, and trend context to find content marketing opportunities, perform competitive analysis, or address product feature gaps via the Plushcap MCP server or the Plushcap API.