Hippos, skunks and launch parties: How culture drives successful experimentation outcomes

In a virtual fireside chat, Dylan Lewis, Experimentation Leader at Atlassian, shared insights from his extensive experience in fostering a culture of experimentation. He recounted his time at Intuit-TurboTax, where the term "HiPPO" (Highest Paid Person’s Opinion) emerged, highlighting how customer feedback and experimentation often trumped executive opinions. At Intuit, they ran numerous experiments during tax season, with only two succeeding, both initiated by marketers. This led to the playful tradition of awarding stuffed hippos to teams with successful experiments and skunks for unsuccessful ones, symbolizing their outcomes. Currently, at Atlassian, Dylan is enhancing their experimentation program, emphasizing the importance of culture over strategy. He cited an example of reducing experiment restart rates from 40% to 5% by hosting a launch party with unbiased participants to ensure reliability. The discussion underscored the importance of addressing organizational culture, identifying obstacles, and ensuring trustworthy processes in experimentation.