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In this article, you’ll learn the following: |
Introduction to Guardrails
In the realm of A/B testing, guardrails are crucial tools that ensure your experiments drive positive overall outcomes without inadvertently causing harm to other aspects of your business. Guardrails are used to monitor the unintended consequences of a campaign. For instance, while increasing conversion rates might be your primary goal, guardrails like bounce rates, engagement levels, and revenue per session keep an eye on the broader picture. Unlike primary success metrics, which focus on the main objective of your test, guardrails help maintain the health of your other essential business metrics.
Why Guardrails Matter?
Guardrails play a pivotal role in managing risks by preventing optimizations that might negatively impact other key areas. They facilitate comprehensive decision-making by ensuring you consider the trade-offs between multiple metrics. Ignoring guardrails can lead to poor decisions, as seen in real-world scenarios where businesses focus solely on boosting sales, only to see customer satisfaction plummet due to overlooked issues in the user experience. By incorporating guardrails, companies can balance improving specific metrics and maintaining overall performance.
How Guardrails Work at VWO?
At VWO, you have the flexibility to use existing metrics or define new ones as guardrails. Once a metric is selected as a guardrail, it is automatically added as a secondary metric in your campaign. This allows you to monitor it alongside your primary success metrics.
Several statistical parameters are associated with guardrails to provide enough flexibility to suit your unique experimentation needs:
- Minimum Detectable Reduction (MDR): It represents the maximum reduction you want to be able to confidently detect as statistically significant.
- Statistical Power: It's the probability of your test correctly identifying a breach when there's a reduction in guardrail metric larger than your MDR.
- False Positive Rate (FPR): This parameter determines the likelihood of incorrectly identifying a reduction when there isn't one, helping you avoid misleading conclusions.
In the event of a guardrail breach, VWO offers two options: you can either receive a notification alerting you to the breach or, for more critical guardrails, disable the variation that caused the breach and then notify you. This proactive approach helps you address potential issues promptly.
Similar to any other metric, guardrails are monitored in real-time, providing ongoing insights into your test's broader impact.
Best Practices for Using Guardrails
To effectively implement guardrails, choose metrics that align with your business goals and are likely to reveal meaningful insights about your test's impact. Set realistic thresholds for the aforementioned parameters to ensure your guardrails are not overly sensitive. Additionally, communicate the role and importance of guardrails to stakeholders, emphasizing their role in safeguarding overall business health.
Conclusion
Guardrails are vital in A/B testing, providing a safety net that ensures experimentation does not disrupt other crucial business metrics. Adopting guardrails can enhance decision-making and steer your experiments to safer, more reliable outcomes. Consider implementing guardrails in your experiments today for more comprehensive and responsible optimization.