When it comes to trying out new business models, creating new products or designing behavioral interventions to tackle societal challenges (e.g., climate change, inequality, discrimination), even the most experienced managers often get it wrong. Sometimes even without knowing. That is, intuition, experience, and data on their own do not really work to make “the right” decisions. What does? Running rigorous business experiments – and that’s exactly where “Management by Experiments” comes in. 

This course will empower students to become better decision-makers through experimentation. They will learn how to identify and analyze real-world problems conceptually; and how to solve them empirically by designing and running rigorous experiments. The course bridges theory and practice by teaching students how to use scientific theories to analyze real-world problems, design novel interventions, and test them through rigorous experimentation. The course is unique in combining scientific rigor and practical relevance as well as theoretical insights and applied empirical methods.

In the first part, students get profound insights into causal research and business experimentation from a theoretical and methodological perspective. In the second part, students apply their knowledge and gain hands-on A/B testing skills by designing effective experiments in a real-world setting (e.g., designing behavioral interventions to encourage prosocial and sustainable behavior).

After the course, students will be familiar with key concepts of marketing and customer-centric management. They will have learned (1) how to work with novel, evidence-based marketing research, (2) how to develop creative and effective intervention strategies based on marketing insights, and (3) how to conduct rigorous experiments for managerial decision-making. As such, the course will help students to sharpen their skills to analyze and solve practical problems in a causal way. Additionally, students will learn how to receive and give feedback on creative work as well as how to pitch and present their ideas to others. Taken together, students will know how to do “Management by Experiments”, which shall allow them to better design, implement, evaluate, and communicate effective marketing strategies.

Course attendance is monitored throughout the semester (attendance in 80% of the classroom sessions is mandatory).

The course uses a multifaceted teaching approach, including lectures with special emphasis on in-class discussions, in-class and homework assignments (on an individual and team level), external guest talks, an idea workshop, and a real-world challenge (practice project). This diverse set of traditional and innovative methods actively bridges theory and practice offering a holistic learning experience for students. Overall, the course is highly interactive, and students are expected to contribute significantly throughout the semester.

Grading is based on:

(1) practice project (35%)

(2) theory project (20%)

(3) individual in-class quizzes (25%)

(4) participation and attendance (20%)

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