The top table of the template has space to outline the basics – including the name of the experiment, the experiment owner, reviewers, approvers, and the status. Make sure to @ mention team members so they’re notified about their involvement, and include your Optimizely link for easy reference.

If you remember anything about the scientific method from school, then you know that there are quite a few steps that happen before the actual experiment. Use the Experimentation planning section of the template to lay the foundation for success. Provide a high-level overview of the experiment, establish your hypothesis, define your metrics and targets, establish your variations, and include any baseline data or notes you might need to refer to. As eager as you might be to jump right in with the testing, investing time in planning will set you up for a lot of learning.

You ran the experiment and the results are in. Document them in the Results section of the template. Jot down your experiment start and end date, the link to your Optimizely results, and a short summary of the metrics that you monitored. Make sure you also assign a clear conclusion (such as “inconclusive” or “hypothesis proved”) here, so everybody can get the results of that experiment at a glance without wading through all of the details.

Your results shouldn’t be the end of the road. You want to learn from each and every experiment (whether your hypothesis was correct or not), which means you need to identify some firm outcomes. In the Conclusions section of the template, highlight your primary goals and other metrics for easy reference. Then, write down key takeaways, questions, and observations and outline any next steps that your team should take. This means you’ll go beyond learning and actually use those findings to improve your business.