AMA: Barracuda Sr. Director, Product Management, Sheila Hara on Product Experimentation

For me, building a culture of experimentation starts with mindset. Marty Cagan often says that “the best teams don’t just build features, they solve problems.” I use that...

I remind my CEO that experiments aren’t about being right, they’re about reducing risk. If a test disproves our idea early, that’s a win — because we didn’t waste six mon...

For me, prioritization is about clarity on business impact, not just curiosity.Strategic Fit – I expect my team to propose experiments that tie back to our biggest produc...

At an early stage, success isn’t always about big dashboards or perfect p-values—it’s about learning. I tell my team: if the experiment helps us answer a question we were...

As a leader, my process for experimentation is really about setting clear expectations for my team and creating the right environment for good decisions.Framing the Exper...

This is a tricky question, because experimentation and shipping can feel at odds — and it really comes down to ruthless prioritization.It’s always a tension — teams want ...

Uncertainty and ambiguity are the whole point of experimentation — if the outcome were certain, we wouldn’t need to test.I coach my team to handle this in three ways:Defi...

I’ve seen two models work, and both can be effective depending on company stage and culture.In some orgs, growth and core product are separate teams. Growth focuses on ac...

I set the expectation that experiment results aren’t just numbers on a slide — they’re a story about customer behavior and business impact.Structured Readouts – My team p...

I’ve had the privilege of running experiments across very different industries, and each one has taught me something new.One of the most successful was what’s now Endicia...