Experimentation as a catalyst for transformational product success

Main Takeaways

• Repetition and consistency are key to cultivating a culture of experimentation and driving organizational change.
• Experimentation is not just a tool but a mindset that can apply to everything
• Success requires adaptability: treating organizational shifts as opportunities to learn and iterate, just as you would with a product.

Who are you in a nutshell? What do you do, and why do you do it?

Hi, I’m Luis Trindade, and I love experimentation. I started as a computer engineer but quickly realized my passion was at the intersection of technology, user experience, and business. Over the years, I’ve worn many hats—developer, UX consultant, founder, and now product manager—but the common thread has always been curiosity and a drive to learn.

My journey into experimentation came from observing how digital products were designed and delivered. I noticed how small decisions, like a button color or copy change, could impact user behavior. I’ve seen how simple translation errors could cost millions, but testing avoided catastrophe. Through these experiences, I learned that the true value lies not just in delivering products but in fostering an iterative mindset.

I work to share this passion with others—whether through talks, workshops, or helping organize meetups. At Farfetch, I’ve embraced a role as a teacher, helping teams adopt experimentation to set better goals, mitigate risks, and share knowledge across the organization. Ultimately, the collective learning we gain from testing hypotheses and improving user experiences is a company’s most valuable asset.

What’s your setup? What tools, frameworks, and products do you use?

I work mostly from home in a city just outside Lisbon, which allows me to spend more time with my 9-month-old daughter. I visit the Lisbon office when I can, even just for lunch with colleagues—those in-person moments are irreplaceable for building real connections.

My workstation is a Mac Mini M1 with a 27” Dell monitor, a light bar, and an OBSBOT Tiny 2 camera for clear communication during calls. My desk and chair are ergonomic, and I can switch between sitting and standing with the click of a button. Most importantly, my desk is next to a window with a view of my daughter’s kindergarten.

For work tools, I rely on Zoom, Slack, and the Google Workspace suite for communication and documentation. For discovery and brainstorming, I use Miro or Zoom’s whiteboard functionality.

What’s the biggest challenge for you at the moment, and how do you plan to overcome it?

Four years ago, I helped create a Center of Excellence for Test & Learn at Farfetch. The goal was to instill an experimentation mindset across the company. While we’ve made significant progress, recent organizational shifts have created new challenges. Changes in leadership, scaling down teams, and redefining priorities forced us to adapt our roadmap.

Instead of seeing this as a setback, I view it as an opportunity. Just as we apply experimentation principles to product development, we’re iterating on our internal practices. We’ve refocused on stability and self-service capabilities, automating tasks like error reporting and analytics deep dives to free up resources. At the same time, we’ve retrained team members and introduced new tools to empower others to experiment.

The challenge remains the same—teaching the organization how to “fish” through experimentation—but the goals and approaches have evolved. It’s a moving target, and that’s what makes it exciting.

In your opinion, what defines a top 1% product management professional?

A top product manager is someone I can learn from, someone who challenges my perspective and deepens my understanding. It’s less about being the “best” in every domain and more about becoming a reference point for others in a specific area of expertise.

How do you cultivate a culture of experimentation in your team, and what practices have been most effective?

Repetition and consistency are the keys to building habits. At Farfetch, we’ve embedded experimentation into our regular processes through weekly ceremonies where teams discuss hypotheses, test designs, and results. We also host monthly company-wide Test & Learn sessions to share insights and maintain a centralized knowledge base, LEAR (from “Learning”). Each hypothesis, iteration, and result is documented with a sharable link, making it easy to access and build upon collective knowledge.

By creating regular touchpoints and ensuring learnings are shared consistently, we’ve made experimentation an integral part of our culture.

How do you handle major shifts in strategy due to new information?

One example comes from my role as the product manager for Farfetch’s in-house experimentation platform. Years ago, the platform struggled with adoption because it required developers to hard-code logic for tests, which was time-consuming and messy. When I joined, I pivoted the roadmap to focus on building a feature toggle system, a “Trojan horse” that gave developers full control over deployments with zero extra effort.

This change eliminated resistance to experimentation. Within six months, over 30 squads adopted the system without any formal training because it made their lives easier. Developers began advocating for experimentation themselves, creating a turning point for the platform’s success.

How do you balance quantitative data with qualitative insights in decision-making?

A recent example involved testing a new standardized size scale on our e-commerce platform. Initial A/B tests showed positive engagement metrics but detrimental checkout metrics, which didn’t make sense. After triple-checking the quantitative data, we added a contextual feedback survey to the test. This qualitative insight revealed the issue: users were confused by inconsistent size displays across different pages.

The test was stopped, learnings were shared, and the feedback informed the next iteration. This reinforced an important lesson: A/B testing isn’t the only tool in your experimentation toolkit—qualitative insights can be just as valuable.