Experimental Mindset

One of my favorite new rhythms is identifying three small experiments I can run each week. I pick these based off of my learnings and takeaways from the previous week.

It’s become one of my favorite tools for growth. I pick three experiments by:

1. Identifying any assumptions I’m making.
2. Creating a clear test-case with expected results.
3. Running the test and recording the results, learning, and iterating.

1. Assumptions

The first stage of developing an experimental mindset is realizing we’re constantly making assumptions and working to confirm them. Frequently, though, we’re just confirming our assumptions without actual data and validation to back them up.

Our brains crave closure.

But things get really interesting when you start to identify the assumptions you’re making, and work diligently to confirm or deny them, learn, and grow your well of knowledge. Knowledge turns into skills when it’s applied to something real.

That’s where experiments shine.

Start by listing your assumptions. Here are three assumptions I was making based off reviewing the previous week and identifying key learnings:

1. Blocking time for individual tasks will make me work more intentionally.
2. Scheduling walking sessions during the day will help me gain more clarity.
3. Engagement with my content will increase by sharing more personal stories.

2. Expectations

We have our assumptions, so now we create clear expectations—what we think will happen when we test the assumptions. This part requires clear measurables so you can validate if your assumption was correct after you run the experiment.

1. Blocking time will allow me to get more high-impact work done. I’ll measure this by reviewing how many high-impact tasks were completed each day.
2. Scheduling walking sessions will allow me to solve more problems. I’ll measure this by tracking the number of problems I solve during each walking session.
3. Content engagement will increase when I add more stories. I’ll measure this by reviewing the analytics on my content and seeing if there are more engagements.

3. Results

With the expectations outlined, it’s time to run the experiment. I keep my experiments to a one-week timeframe because it’s short enough to keep them isolated, but long enough to collect the amount of data I need to validate or invalidate the experiment.

Once the experiment is complete, I measure the results.

1. Did blocking time allow me to complete more high-impact work?
2. Did scheduling walking sessions result in more problems solved?
3. Did including stories in my content increase engagement?

Include data (quantitative and qualitative) and determine if:

• 🟢 It was a success and you want to keep doing it.
• 🔴 It was a failure and you don’t want to do it again.
• 🟠 It was an invalid test and you want to reevaluate.

Keep a log of these in whatever system you use. For me, that’s Notion. I have an “Experiments” database I update during my weekly review.

Here’s an example experiment I ran around improving the “definition of done” for my weekly targets. I assumed a better definition would result in higher completion.

The Weekly Challenge

The only constant is change. And the only way to maintain resiliency is to cultivate an experimental mindset, which allows us to observe, test, and learn. It’s a beautiful feedback loop that creates compound growth. Small changes, remarkable results.

Start by writing one small experiment you can run this week. Write your assumption you need to test, the results you expect, and the actual results. Whether it works out or not, you will learn something. And sometimes we learn more by finding out what we don’t like than what we do like. It’s all data.

You only get there through experimentation.