Harvard Business Review Guides Ultimate Boxed Set (16 Books)

CHAPTER 5

How to Design a Business Experiment

by Oliver Hauser and Michael Luca

The rise of experimental evaluations within organizations—or what economists refer to as field experiments—has the potential to transform organizational decision making, providing fresh insight into areas ranging from product design to human resources to public policy. Companies that invest in randomized evaluations can gain a game-changing advantage.

Yet while there has been a rapid growth in experiments, especially within tech companies, we’ve seen too many run incorrectly. Even when they’re set up properly, avoidable mistakes often happen during implementation. As a result, many organizations fail to receive the real benefits of the scientific method.

This chapter ...