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Ask HN: How to explain “Hypothesis” to a non science audience?

2 pointsby utkarsh_apoorvaalmost 5 years ago
Here&#x27;s my problem. Most of the teams, and startups I interact with, are working on Growth, and therefore conduct lots of experiments.<p>However, many of the team members do not really have a working idea of what&#x27;s a good experiment. This could be dangerous for their projects and efforts. This is more disheartening for me because my product deals with scientific growth experiments.<p>While after explaining it, they get it (they are pretty smart, usually), but I am sure there are many who don&#x27;t know and don&#x27;t know that they don&#x27;t know.<p>All online content on hypothesis seems to be pretty heavily worded. Which is good for rigour, but not useful when a 22 year old marketer is looking at it at 3 am in the morning.<p>So I have started to write a series and the very first article is here: https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.lightcat.io&#x2F;hypothesis<p>This is in a language that most people should understand (I think). Would love feedback and thoughts on this.<p>Do you think that scientific methods need to be explained in a manner that everyone gets it? And that there are not many resources out there for this? And whether the material I have written solves the problem.

1 comment

gus_massaalmost 5 years ago
I&#x27;d try to explain them something more concrete, like A&#x2F;B testing. There are some nice articles written by patio11:<p>* &quot;<i>Why You Don&#x27;t A&#x2F;B Test... And How You Can Start This August</i>&quot; <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;training.kalzumeus.com&#x2F;newsletters&#x2F;archive&#x2F;why_you_do_not_ab_test" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;training.kalzumeus.com&#x2F;newsletters&#x2F;archive&#x2F;why_you_d...</a> (<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=6161552" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=6161552</a> | 119 points | Aug 5, 2013 | 56 comments)<p>* &quot;<i>Dispatches From The A&#x2F;B Testing Trenches</i>&quot; <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;training.kalzumeus.com&#x2F;newsletters&#x2F;archive&#x2F;ab_testing" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;training.kalzumeus.com&#x2F;newsletters&#x2F;archive&#x2F;ab_testin...</a> (<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=12540590" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=12540590</a> | 166 points | Sept 20, 2016 | 46 comments)<p>Also, a good Mythbuster marathon may be helpful, but it is more difficult to explain as a business activity.