Learnings log

1---
2name: learnings-log
3description: Write up a concluded test in four fixed sections, then promote what
4  is worth keeping into the curated learnings digest with a confidence tier. Use
5  as the last step of every test, wins and losses alike.
6argument-hint: [test name or the result you just concluded]
7---
8
9# Learnings log
10
11Two jobs, in order. First write the outcome. Then decide what, if anything,
12earns a place in the digest the next hypothesis will search.
13
14## Part 1 - the outcome, in four sections
15
16Always these four, always in this order.
17
18**We learned:**
19
20- The findings that answer the original hypothesis, positive and negative.
21- At least one thing nobody expected, when there is one. Those are usually the
22  entries still being read in two years.
23
24**We did not learn:**
25
26- Something BECAUSE the reason. A bug, a planning miss, a sample that never
27  arrived, an external event, a window too short to see the metric that matters.
28- This section is the one people skip and the one that stops the result being
29  over-read later. An empty "we did not learn" almost always means it was not
30  thought about.
31
32**We now have these questions:**
33
34- Written as specific, testable questions. These become the next hypotheses.
35
36**So we are going to:**
37
38- Ship it, iterate on it, drop it, or run the complementary test. Name the
39  action and connect it to the learning above it.
40
41Keep two versions: the long one with the full context and numbers, and a short
42plain-text one that survives being pasted into a tracker with no formatting.
43
44## Part 2 - promote it, or do not
45
46The raw record already lives wherever tests are tracked. The digest is a
47curated file of proven and recent patterns, and it is only useful while it
48stays high signal. Most tests do not belong in it.
49
50Assign a tier first:
51
52- **Proven.** This corroborates a pattern already in the digest, or a follow-up
53  chain that held. Upgrade the existing entry, add this test's key to it, raise
54  its tier. Do not add a second entry saying the same thing.
55- **Provisional.** A single clean result, strong numbers, recent, never
56  re-validated. Add a new entry and label it provisional out loud.
57- **Weak.** Inconclusive, thin sample, or contradicted. No pattern entry. One
58  line in the "already run" list so nobody repeats it.
59
60Never inflate the patterns section with single tests dressed as law. A pattern
61earns the word proven by being validated twice, not by being written
62confidently once.
63
64Every entry carries a tier and a date, so a future reader knows how much to
65trust it without asking anyone.
66
67## Handling a result that contradicts an older one
68
69Do not edit the old entry to match the new one. Add a line under it naming the
70newer test and what changed. A log people can rewrite is a log nobody trusts,
71and the disagreement is often the most useful thing in the file.
72
73If three entries now say the same thing, promote them into one principle at the
74top of the file and link all three.
75
76## Before writing
77
78Show the proposed changes as a diff, section by section, tier visible, and wait
79for a yes. Then apply them as targeted edits rather than rewriting the file, so
80the ordering and curation survive.
81
82## The line that matters
83
84The learning sentence is the only part anyone reads in a year. It must be true
85beyond this page: "visitors who cannot find the price leave before they read
86the value proposition" transfers, "moving the price up lifted signups" does
87not. It must be falsifiable. And a flat or losing test gets one too, because
88those are the entries that stop repeats.