Case Study#1: Netflix : 'The 10,000 Experiment Mindset'
Today’s newsletter is a collaboration with Aakash (Affirm, ex- Google, Epic Games). The publication Netflix: Lessons in Experimentation is originally hosted on Aakash Gupta’s newsletter.
Before you go there, here’s a little sneak preview into how product experimentation is changing the world:
Preview:
Humanity has evolved over the years to optimise for progress. Malcolm Gladwell popularised the 10,000 hour rule - focusing that you need deliberate practice to excel in any field. However, research later suggested this rule is flawed because it only explains for a small portion of performance improvement and it varies field to field:
This means, using the 10,000 hour rule, you could succeed or not depending on which field you’re trying to excel at. It doesn’t rely on insights to change your daily behaviour. So maybe the 10,000 hour rule should be 10,000 insights rule? But how do you get insights? The trigger for daily insights has to be experimentation… in-fact deliberate experimentation.
Today, Facebook, Netflix and Booking.com have perfected the 10,000 experiment rule (and not 10,000 hour rule) which moves the thinking from deliberate practice to deliberate reflection. These companies run 1000s of experiments everyday to get insights and then run more experiments the next day.
In today’s newsletter, we will deep-dive into Netflix that has pioneered experimentation as a way of remaining competitive.
Read full publication here: Netflix: Lessons in Experimentation
I think there is a problem with the timeline of Reed Hasting going to Stanford and founding Pure Software. He went to Stanford in 1988 and then founded Pure Software and Netflix in 1991 and 1997 respectively. The facts are misleading in Akash Gupta's article.
Please verify.