Experimentation is an excellent way companies can gain incredible insights on product launches. But companies might not be taking advantage of this opportunity.

Peter Gray, vice president of product at Dow Jones, shared his thoughts on why they should with attendees at the INMA Media Subscriptions Summit on Thursday. 

“You can see the future, any idea, hypothesis, that you have about an existing product, you have the ability to see the future and show it to a small percentage of your audience and find out what would happen if you did it for real,” he said.

Gray led INMA members through what is to be gained from experimentation, as well as how the team at Dow Jones is organised and the end-to-end process of experimentation. 

“Experimentation is the best business tool that has ever existed,” he said.

Many times, companies can believe experimentation opens the door to risk. Gray had the opposite stance: “Experimentation is a reduction of risk, not an introduction of it,” he said. He believes experimentation is a must, not a choice within a business. 

Gray explained there is such thing as teams embodying an experimentation mindset, and expressed the importance of this to become an experiment driven brand.

He explained the first step for is for leadership to change its mindset, as it sets the entire team up to change its mindset and processes: “Treat every step in your production process as an experiment.” 

Failure is a part of the experimentation mindset as well. “It is also likely to fail, and that’s OK.” 

The Summit wraps up on Thursday, February 15. You can register here.

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