Demming

Earlier today I sat through a meeting in which the presenter mentioned Deming. Wow, this was the first time I have heard Deming in about 2 years, or the time period that I have spent in Marketing. Of course my interest was peaked. The presenter went on to explain how important it was to experiment every day. I totally agree with this. However, I was a little disappointed that he never spoke about how to ensure you adequately measure those results. I am giving him a pass though, as I assume it was the audience he was speaking to. Regardless, I think this is an extremely important point. Experiment all you want in this world. Tweak things and be curious...but always make sure you can adequately measure your results of the test. If not, then you have no idea what "experiment" really worked. To do this, you need to make sure your data is accurate and accessible; and that you have control of the variables. If not, you can test all you want, but you will have little understanding as to whether your manipulation effected your metrics, or something else effected them.