Hypothesis-First Thinking Can Save Your Business
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In 2015, Facebook released information showing that its users were far more engaged with video content than any other kind of media. This sent ripples through the entire media ecosystem. Suddenly every company was talking about "pivot to video." Companies like Vice and Buzzfeed laid off writers and started producing more videos. The problem? The Facebook data wasn't real. Facebook shared inflated data and avoided owning up to it for several years. I have some sympathy for the companies that blindly followed Facebook's advice. However, they should have treated it like a hypothesis, not gospel. They should have asked the question: Can we improve our businesses by shifting to more video content? And then tested it. I teach people how to do this in the third module of Think Like A Strategy Consultant around a real-world case (randomly about Facebook too). So, before you follow the latest trend, get excited about that buzzword, or implement the latest strategy the "cool" company just announced, maybe test it first? |
Paul Millerd
Freelancer, creator & writer
If you asked me what my favorite type of fruit was, I could tell you in two ways. Way #1: “Well, I like fruits with seeds. Sometimes they’re sweet; sometimes they’re sour. They have green leaves on the top. They’re pretty small, too.” You might respond, “you mean a strawberry?” Then I’d say yes, and you’d know my answer. Or, I could tell you another way: Way #2: “It’s a strawberry.” This is the simple way to explain top-down communication. From the listener’s perspective, it is much easier to...
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