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Film-style poster for the Experiment Card for Mentors presentation

A guide for mentors: Experiment Card for Mentors

How to send the Experiment Card, read the answers and talk them through.

English

What this guide covers

What this guide covers

What this guide covers

What it is

One belief, one test, one bar

Your mentee writes a belief, a test and a bar for success, then the result.

When to send it

Send it when a belief needs proof

It fits once you both know which belief to test first.

  • After an assumption map when the riskiest one is known
  • Before a big spend a hire, a build, an ad budget
  • When opinions clash let a small test decide

An honest frame

Set the bar before the result

In trials with Italian startups, founders taught this way made better calls on what to drop.

  • The bar comes first decided before the result is seen
  • Any result counts a missed bar is still a result
  • The trials Camuffo and others, 2020 and 2024

Sending it

Send it from your pairing

It takes a minute, and your mentee gets an email.

Open your pairing

Choose Assign a tool and find the Experiment Card.

Try it as your mentee

Fill it in yourself first; nothing is saved or sent.

Say when to come back

They fill in the result after the test, then send.

Open your pairing

Choose Assign a tool and find the Experiment Card.

Try it as your mentee

Fill it in yourself first; nothing is saved or sent.

Say when to come back

They fill in the result after the test, then send.

Reading the answers

Compare the result with the bar

The bar, the number and the decision sit side by side.

  • Success bar set before the test
  • Result the number they got
  • Decision keep going, change course or drop it

Questions to ask

Ask about the belief, then the bar

People who ask follow-up questions are liked more (Huang and others, 2017).

  • Is this the belief that would hurt most if it were wrong? then: what makes it the riskiest?
  • Could a cheaper or faster test answer it? then: what would that test be?
  • What will you do if the result sits right on the bar? then: can you decide that now?

Feedback that helps

Talk about the test, not the person

Feedback can backfire, and a missed bar is a result, not a failure.

1 in 3 Over a third of feedback effects lowered performance in one large review Kluger and DeNisi, 1996

One step

Decide, then plan the next test

Plans in the form "if this happens, then I do that" help people act.

94 Tests found that if-then plans help people reach their goals Gollwitzer and Sheeran, 2006

After the meeting

Keep it all on Mentornity

The card, your comments and the next steps stay in one place.

Read it at a glance

The bar, the result and the decision come first.

Add next steps

Write what will be done, by whom and by when.

Ask to fill it again

Send it again for the next belief to test.

Read it at a glance

The bar, the result and the decision come first.

Add next steps

Write what will be done, by whom and by when.

Ask to fill it again

Send it again for the next belief to test.

Pick one belief to test

Ask your mentee for the belief that would hurt most if it were wrong.

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