An introduction to tiny experiments
Earlier today, I came across this Big Think interview with Anne-Laure Le Cunff about running tiny experiments on ourselves. It aligns so much my recent thoughts asking more questions and focusing on smaller projects that I couldn't help but get excited.
What's cool about the system Le Cunff implements in forming her tiny expirments is that it's based on the scientific method. As she describes it, there are three steps to setting up a tiny experiment.
Observe your life and the world around you. Take notes on the way things are and how they might be different.
Form a hypothesis about what action might create a desired outcome in your life.
Create a PACT (a purposeful, actionable, continuous, trackable commitment) using the template: I will [action] for [duration].
While running your experiment, take periodic notes, both on internal feelings about the experiment and the external outcomes that result from the experiment. When the experiment is complete, analyze the data and decide whether to persist, stop, or modify the experiment for your next cycle of experimentation.
Le Cunff makes some important notes about what constitutes a good tiny experiment.
The hypothesis should be uncertain.
Your PACT should be achievable.
The experiment should be out of your comfort zone and not optimized for success.
I'm excited to get her book Tiny Experiments for greater insights into this process, but until then, I'm definitely going to use this base framework to start putting some tiny experiments together.