The Online Controlled Experiment Lifecycle

Online Controlled Experiments (OCEs) enable an accurate understanding of customer value and generate millions of dollars of additional revenue at Microsoft. Unlike other techniques for learning from customers, OCEs establish an accurate and causal relationship between a change and the impact observed. Although previous research describes technical and statistical dimensions, the key phases of online experimentation are not widely known, their impact and importance are obscure, and how to establish OCEs in an organization is underexplored. In this paper, using a longitudinal in-depth case study, we address this gap by (1) presenting the Experiment Lifecycle, and (2) demonstrating with four example experiments their profound impact. We show that OECs help optimize infrastructure needs and aid in project planning and measuring team efforts, in addition to their primary goal of accurately identifying what customers value. We conclude that product development should fully integrate the Experiment Lifecycle to benefit from the OCEs