From zero to hero: How Aller went from 0 to 10 experiments in only two months
As digital business models have become increasingly important for media giant Aller Sweden, Head of Product Nathalie Bodin saw the need for adding experimentation to the product development process. Taking the leap enabled them to bridge the gap between their intentions and reality, and here’s how they did it!
There are gazillions of ideas and guesses involved when developing digital products, and making smart decisions on what to prioritize can be challenging. However, it’s essential to find out what actually impacts the business, and doing it fast is crucial. One surefire way to get quick answers is experimentation, a standard method among fast-growing companies like Airbnb, Shopify, etc.
Experimentation is a crucial part of innovation, and some might even argue that there’s no innovation without experimentation.
When done right, experimentation helps you answer an important question, and it does so reasonably risk-free: of all the things you could build, what would truly make sense? Finding the answer will help you stop wasting time and money on ideas that don't work before falling too deep into the rabbit hole of the development process.
Train the trainer: A concept to drive change
Being aware of the importance of innovation, Nathalie Bodin wanted her Product Managers to acquire the skills and resources and start using experimentation in their development process pronto.
With the help of the powerful ‘train the trainer’ method*,* she wanted the product managers to become change agents, the driving force behind innovation. To kickstart the project, three PMs on her team enrolled in a four-month part-time training program designed and led by scilla.studio.
“Empowering teams to generate change themselves is so powerful. If you want to create real change, you need to get it from within the organization.”
— Nathalie Bodin, Aller
The outcome: 10 experiments in only 2 months
At the end of the training, the PMs had already:
started to train their own product teams in the experimentation process;
established their growth strategy;
created and prioritized their testing plans.
The hunger for innovation resulted in 10 successful experiments in merely two months. And while this is an extraordinary pace, they are not putting on the brakes just yet. Speed is of the essence!
“Our target is to run 20 experiments per month come May.”
— Nathalie Bodin, Aller
“Our target is to run 20 experiments per month come May.”
Nathalie Bodin, Head of Product at Aller MediaGetting the leadership on board
At the end of the training period, the PMs presented their suggested product growth strategy to the stakeholders to ensure buy-in. This gave the leadership a much-needed opportunity to align on the growth direction.
“This was a huge energy booster for me, to see how forward-thinking and proactive they were in their suggestions. It was a mighty feeling!”
— Nathalie Bodin, Aller
Next step for Aller
Aller invited scilla.studio to host an inspirational lecture for the entire company and talk about the benefits of experimentation. The presentation convinced even the worst skeptics and facilitated genuine curiosity in this valuable method.
The company has since internally recruited three product analysts to fuel the experiment process with insights, allowing for a higher tempo moving forward.
“If we want to reach our target of 20 experiments per month by May, we need to get rid of the analysis bottleneck.”
Why scilla.studio?
“We wanted to become data-driven for real and start utilizing experimentation in the product development in the daily process. We heard of scilla.studio before, and we realized that you had the frameworks to help us get there. The train the trainer concept works, so mission accomplished!”
Would you recommend scilla.studio to other product leaders?
“Yes, definitely! scilla.studio provided my Product Managers with the knowledge and tools to start experimenting quickly and inspired them to participate in the product strategy. This hasn’t been the regular management course. We got to do it on our own, and it’s priceless!”
The services scilla.studio provided in this project
Design training curriculum
Training sessions including 7 workshops and lectures
Individual coaching
Identified product growth loops
