Business experimentation is NOT only for tech firms. Why, When, and How do we run business experiments? Yes, even for your portable toilet business.

Originally planned to be 1 week later, now dropped within the same week as the Overall Intro.

Next week, The Experimental One starts—Yay!—but in this episode, I talk about the choice of Business Experimentation to start this educational podcast + newsletter with. We get into many of the building blocks around game theory and business, our two main foci—and how business experimentation helps you make better decisions under uncertainty.

We'll see after The Experimental One if my bet on starting like this—rather than jumping into the deep end with Nash Equilibria and such—paid off. As I said on the last episode, we'll build towards The Gamey Theoretical One as we go along.

It's an experiment in itself!

Contents

• 1. Welcome to! Business Games! [00:06]
• 2. Exec Summary / Abstract [00:41]
• 3. The Basic Premise [01:37]
• 3.1 The Topic [01:37]
• 3.2 The Context(s) [02:47]
• 3.3 The Approach [05:01]
• 3.4 Two Words about Interviews [06:48]
• 4. What You Should Expect in Season One (the Experimental One) [09:48]
• 4.1 S01e01 JP Castlin x2 (Public + Premium) [10:54]
• 4.2 S01e02 Professor Ananish Chaudhuri x2 (Public + Premium) [15:42]
• 4.3 S01e03 Dawie Olivier x2 (Public + Premium) [20:23]
• 4.4 S01e04 Melissa Clark-Reynolds ONZM x2 (Public + Premium) [22:45]
• 4.5 S01e05 Ashlee Berghoff x2 (Public + Premium) [25:20]
• 4.6 S01e06 Rory Sutherland x2 (Public + Premium) [29:57]
• 4.7 S01e07 Lit Review [32:56]
• 4.8 S01e08 Bonus Discussion Episode with JP Castlin (Public) + Season Overview + Thoughts (Premium) [36:56]
• 4.9 S01e09 Season One Mailbag Episode (Premium) [37:38]
• 5. The Homework [38:14]

The Lit List

1. Read this fun article, first: Disney is playing a bigger game in its box office battle with Scarlett Johansson (marketingweek.com)
2. Want to Make Better Decisions? Start Experimenting (mit.edu)
3. Building a Culture of Experimentation (hbr.org)
4. Avoid the Pitfalls of A/B Testing (hbr.org)
5. “The Power of These Techniques Is Only Getting Stronger” (hbr.org)
6. Why Business Schools Need to Teach Experimentation (hbr.org)
7. Experimentation Works: The Surprising Power of Business Experiments (hbr.org)
8. The Discipline of Business Experimentation (hbr.org)
9. Using Experiments to Launch New Products (hbr.org)
10. A/B Testing: How to Get It Right (hbr.org)
11. Marketers Underuse Ad Experiments. That’s a Big Mistake. (hbr.org)
12. How to Make Data Experiments Powerful (mit.edu)
13. Don’t Let Digital Obsession Destroy Your Organization (mit.edu)
14. R&D, Meet E&S (Experiment & Scale) (mit.edu)
15. Experiments and Data for Post-COVID-19 Work Arrangements (mit.edu)

Main Links About the Upcoming Guests'

1. JP Castlin in Praxis: Strategy in Praxis (substack.com)
2. Professor Ananish Chaudhuri online: https://ananishchaudhuri.com/
3. Dawie Olivier on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dawieo/
4. Melissa Clark-Reynolds ONZM on Twitter: @HoneyBeeGeek
5. Ashlee Berghoff's book: Eureka Results
6. Rory Sutherland on TED: Rory Sutherland | Speaker | TED

Some Other Links Mentioned

• Mark Ritson: The seven signs of a shit brand consultant (marketingweek.com)
• Public Business Games podcast RSS feed : this should work with any of your preferred podcast apps
• Business Games Subscription Tiers : support our work and access Premium content by choosing a paid subscription that unlocks a private RSS feed.