December 23, 2025

“Failed Experiment” is an oxymoron

When thinking about running business experiments, it seems like lots of people imagine that “proving their hypothesis” is a success and “disproving their hypothesis” is a failure.

This is a fundamental misunderstanding of the nature of an experiment.

The point of an experiment is to learn something by proving or disproving a hypothesis.

Proving or disproving.

Either is a successful outcome.

Why?

Because you have learned something.

Disproving your hypothesis is not a “failed experiment” or “a mistake”.

The only way to have a failed experiment is to run one and learn nothing from it.

Yours,

—J