IgnoringNegativeExperiments [anti-pattern] v1.0.0

Treating a negative or inconclusive A/B test result as a failure to hide rather than a learning to document, causing the same losing hypothesis to be retested repeatedly.

Label

Discarding Negative or Inconclusive Experiment Results

Trap

Teams conflate 'experiment succeeded' with 'we shipped' and 'experiment failed' with 'nothing happened'. Negative results are high-value signal: they falsify a hypothesis, reveal product constraints, and prevent future teams from repeating the same test.

Detection Heuristics

• Experiment records show only winning variants; losing variants have no write-up
• The same design change is proposed multiple times across quarters
• No 'learning' field exists in the experiment tracking document
• Stakeholder asks 'did it work?' and discards context when the answer is 'no'

Remediation

• Log every experiment result — positive, negative, and inconclusive — in the same system
• Write a required 'what we learned' paragraph for every negative result
• Tag inconclusive results with the confounding variable, not just 'underpowered'
• Reference prior negative results when proposing similar hypotheses

IgnoringNegativeExperiments [anti-pattern] v1.0.0

Treating a negative or inconclusive A/B test result as a failure to hide rather than a learning to document, causing the same losing hypothesis to be retested repeatedly.

Label

Discarding Negative or Inconclusive Experiment Results

Trap

Teams conflate 'experiment succeeded' with 'we shipped' and 'experiment failed' with 'nothing happened'. Negative results are high-value signal: they falsify a hypothesis, reveal product constraints, and prevent future teams from repeating the same test.

Detection Heuristics

• Experiment records show only winning variants; losing variants have no write-up
• The same design change is proposed multiple times across quarters
• No 'learning' field exists in the experiment tracking document
• Stakeholder asks 'did it work?' and discards context when the answer is 'no'

Remediation

• Log every experiment result — positive, negative, and inconclusive — in the same system
• Write a required 'what we learned' paragraph for every negative result
• Tag inconclusive results with the confounding variable, not just 'underpowered'
• Reference prior negative results when proposing similar hypotheses

Label

Discarding Negative or Inconclusive Experiment Results

Trap

Teams conflate 'experiment succeeded' with 'we shipped' and 'experiment failed' with 'nothing happened'. Negative results are high-value signal: they falsify a hypothesis, reveal product constraints, and prevent future teams from repeating the same test.

Detection Heuristics

• Experiment records show only winning variants; losing variants have no write-up
• The same design change is proposed multiple times across quarters
• No 'learning' field exists in the experiment tracking document
• Stakeholder asks 'did it work?' and discards context when the answer is 'no'

Remediation

• Log every experiment result — positive, negative, and inconclusive — in the same system
• Write a required 'what we learned' paragraph for every negative result
• Tag inconclusive results with the confounding variable, not just 'underpowered'
• Reference prior negative results when proposing similar hypotheses