Skip to Main Content
HBS Home
  • About
  • Academic Programs
  • Alumni
  • Faculty & Research
  • Baker Library
  • Giving
  • Harvard Business Review
  • Initiatives
  • News
  • Recruit
  • Map / Directions
Working Knowledge
Business Research for Business Leaders
  • Browse All Articles
  • Popular Articles
  • Cold Call Podcasts
  • About Us
  • Leadership
  • Marketing
  • Finance
  • Management
  • Entrepreneurship
  • All Topics...
  • Topics
    • COVID-19
    • Entrepreneurship
    • Finance
    • Gender
    • Globalization
    • Leadership
    • Management
    • Negotiation
    • Social Enterprise
    • Strategy
  • Sections
    • Book
    • Cold Call Podcast
    • HBS Case
    • In Practice
    • Lessons from the Classroom
    • Op-Ed
    • Research & Ideas
    • Research Event
    • Sharpening Your Skills
    • What Do You Think?
    • Working Paper Summaries
  • Browse All
    • COVID-19 Business Impact Center
      COVID-19 Business Impact Center
      The Essentials for Enlightened Experimentation
      18 Mar 2001Research & Ideas

      The Essentials for Enlightened Experimentation

      by Stefan Thomke
      In the past, the high cost of experimentation has greatly impacted many firms' ability to successfully innovate. But now, new technologies are enabling reinvention of R&D from the ground up. HBS associate professor Stefan Thomke explains.
      LinkedIn
      Email

      New technologies such as computer simulations not only make experimentation faster and cheaper, they also enable companies to be more innovative. But achieving that requires a thorough understanding of the link between experimentation and learning. Briefly stated, innovation requires the right R&D systems for performing experiments that will generate the information needed to develop and refine products quickly. The challenges are managerial as well as technical:

      Organize For Rapid Experimentation

      • Examine and, if necessary, revamp entrenched routines, organizational boundaries, and incentives to encourage rapid experimentation.
      • Consider using small development groups that contain key people (designers, test engineers, manufacturing engineers) with all the knowledge required to iterate rapidly.
      • Determine what experiments can be performed in parallel instead of sequentially. Parallel experiments are most effective when time matters most, cost is not an overriding factor, and developers expect to learn little that would guide them in planning the next round of experiments.

      Fail Early And Often, But Avoid Mistakes

      • Embrace failures that occur early in the development process and advance knowledge significantly.
      • Don't forget the basics of experimentation. Well-designed tests have clear objectives (what do you anticipate learning?) and hypotheses (what do you expect to happen?). Also, mistakes often occur when you don't control variables that could diminish your ability to learn from the experiments. When variability can't be controlled, allow for multiple, repeated trials.

      Anticipate And Exploit Early Information

      • Recognize the full value of front-loading: identifying problems upstream, where they are easier and cheaper to solve.
      • Acknowledge the trade-off between cost and fidelity. Experiments of lower fidelity (generally costing less) are best suited in the early exploratory stages of developing a product. High-fidelity experiments (typically more expensive) are best suited later to verify the product.

      Combine New And Traditional Technologies

      Do not assume that a new technology will necessarily replace an established one. Usually, new and traditional technologies are best used in concert.

      • Remember that new technologies emerge and evolve continually. Today's new technology might eventually replace its traditional counterpart, but it could then be challenged by tomorrow's new technology.
          Trending
            • 29 Oct 2020
            • Research & Ideas

            The COVID Gender Gap: Why Fewer Women Are Dying

            • 13 Jul 2020
            • Research & Ideas

            Merck CEO Ken Frazier Discusses a COVID Cure, Racism, and Why Leaders Need to Walk the Talk

            • 11 Jan 2021
            • Research & Ideas

            Is A/B Testing Effective? Evidence from 35,000 Startups

            • 17 Feb 2020
            • Sharpening Your Skills

            How Entrepreneurs Can Find the Right Problem to Solve

            • 13 Jan 2021
            • Research & Ideas

            How 'Small C' Change Can Beat Large-Scale Rebuilding

        Stefan H. Thomke
        Stefan H. Thomke
        William Barclay Harding Professor of Business Administration
        Chair, General Management Program
        Contact
        Send an email
        → More Articles
        Find Related Articles
        • Research and Development
        • Creativity

        Sign up for our weekly newsletter

        Interested in improving your business? Learn about fresh research and ideas from Harvard Business School faculty.
        ǁ
        Campus Map
        Harvard Business School Working Knowledge
        Baker Library | Bloomberg Center
        Soldiers Field
        Boston, MA 02163
        Email: Editor-in-Chief
        →Map & Directions
        →More Contact Information
        • Make a Gift
        • Site Map
        • Jobs
        • Harvard University
        • Trademarks
        • Policies
        • Digital Accessibility
        Copyright © President & Fellows of Harvard College