What is an experiment?

An experiment is the process of intentionally testing whether something responds or acts in the way in which we expect it to. It is most often equated with the scientific method, which is concerned with an ever-improving understanding of an objective and empirical theory of our world and reality.

However, the language of experimentation has permeated more recently to other sectors, such as business and innovation. In Silicon Valley, for example, there has been a rise in experimentation being used when testing new products and services that require deeper understanding of people and the systems – physical, social, etc. – they occupy. How these different products and services are interacted with, desired, and conceptually understood become objects of enquiry.

Experimentation allows for validating assumptions about a potential solution and its systemic effects, and has supported innovations to achieve impact in the long-term, particularly when combined with rapid feedback and development cycles. The Lean startup methodology, for example, takes an experimental approach towards service or product development in order to learn fast and amend or adjust the innovation for rapid improvement. This approach can also help ensure that a team builds and tests the most crucial parts of a solution first, by focusing on learning as quickly as possible about how something might respond in “the real world”. It can, therefore, help a team save time and money because it often allows for a creative way of simulating something costly and therefore, risky. Finally, when the innovation might be a new public service, testing the solution or aspects of its implementation (e.g. procurement) allows you to evaluate without committing to a service rollout that was fundamentally flawed or ill-matched to reality.