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I think a more important blunder is failing to understand statistics. "I’ve ran plenty of tests where one variation was the control, hitting 95% confidence, af
by micheljansen 15y ago
I think a more important blunder is failing to understand statistics.
"I’ve ran plenty of tests where one variation was the control, hitting 95% confidence, after just a handful of conversions ... Because you need to run your tests long enough to get accurate results! You need to get past what I call “random coin syndrome”."
Statistics don't work that way. A result is either significant (e.g. you can either draw conclusions with a 95% confidence rate), or it is not. If you reach 95% confidence after 14 conversions (10 vs 4), it either means your questions are too broad or you failed to control for external influences.
- Jabbles 15y agoThe flaw is more fundamental than that. By testing the confidence each time, you run the risk of vastly overestimating the true significance of your tests. A previous discussion of this exact problem: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2368825 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2368825