← Glossary
// OUTPUTS

Experiment archive

The record of every experiment a team has run, with the contract, the metric movement, and the verdict. The compounding asset of an experiment-driven team.

// what it is

The experiment archive is the long-term output of running marketing as experiments. Each entry is a contract plus a verdict plus the evidence behind it. Wins are reusable. Failures are reusable.

A team without an archive runs the same experiment twice every eighteen months. A team with an archive looks up "did we already test this?" before running the next one, and either skips it or designs a sharper version.

// when this matters

When to use it

Start one with the first experiment. Every contract and verdict belongs in it. The value compounds with the depth of the archive — empty archives teach nothing.

// deeper

What this looks like in practice

The archive is the asset that distinguishes an experiment-driven team from a team that just runs experiments. Each entry — contract, metric series, verdict, learning — is the seed of the next experiment. Without the archive, the team relies on memory, and memory drifts toward whichever results were socially convenient.

A useful archive is searchable, not chronological. The right query is "have we tested anything like this before?" and that requires consistent tagging: which channel, which surface, which audience, which kind of metric. Tag at the time of writing the contract, not after, or it does not happen.

Archives must include kills. A team that only stores its wins ends up with a polished record of survivor bias and no defense against re-running the same losing test. The kill verdicts — with the contracts that defined them — are usually the most valuable rows in the archive.

// pitfalls

Common mistakes

  • Only archiving the wins.Kill verdicts are half the archive is value. A "successful experiments" board is a survivor-bias display, not an archive.
  • Archiving without tags.An archive you cannot search is a graveyard. Tag at write time so future-you can answer "did we test this already?" in seconds.
  • Letting the archive become someone is side project.If keeping the archive honest is not part of the experiment workflow, it stops being honest. Make recording the verdict the last step of every experiment, owned by the same person who wrote the contract.
Tool comparison. See how Xi compares with Notion and Spreadsheets.
// related

Related terms

VerdictThe outcome of an experiment after the end date or a threshold is hit. Three options: ship, kill, or review.Experiment OSA system that captures every marketing decision as an experiment with a contract and a verdict, and stores the result so the next decision builds on the last.Marketing experimentationThe practice of running marketing decisions as experiments rather than as opinions. The discipline of testing, measuring, and either shipping or killing each idea.

Pick a hypothesis. Vocabulary done.

The fastest way to learn this vocabulary is to commit one experiment. The contract takes about five minutes to write.

Run your first experimentBrowse the field guides