Generate Theories
Jul 3, 2018Step one of the Perpetual Optimization Process is to generate theories. The steps below will help you improve your theories and increase your chances of finding wins.
Notice that I didn’t say write down ideas. The problem is, people fall in love with ideas. And if they are in love with it, it will often upset the testing process. They’ll want it to have top priority or think its so great that it can’t fail. There is no room for bias in testing.
By nature, a theory is something that needs to be proven. We don’t know if its a good idea yet. We have to test it first. Theories help remove bias from testing.
1. Dedicate time
Most people don’t dedicate enough time to just sit and come up with ideas. Dedicate time to look at analytics, sift through data, put yourself in the customers shoes and experience what they experience. This will help you generate more ideas.
2. Write every theory down
Write down the good, the bad and every other theory that you have. Don’t worry about how good they are. Its most important that you just keep a log of every theory you have. Keep the log in a place where everyone can access it. This will allow them to both add to it and see what ideas are on the list. Let everyone one contribute. You can worry about whether an idea is worth testing or not later when you prioritize.
3. Don’t prioritize yet
Now is not the time to prioritize your theories or rate them on how good they are. That’s the next step. This step is all about getting enough ideas that you can evaluate and prioritize them later.
4. Each theory needs a hypothesis
Simply just throwing out ideas is too easy and won’t yield great results. Including a hypothesis will make you think deeper about the problem you are trying to solve and the outcome that you expect to happen. It will also help eliminate weak ideas that lack depth.