Manage hypotheses

You accomplish work through hypotheses in Experiment Collaboration. Each hypothesis moves through a workflow from creation to completion.

Create a hypothesis

Click + at the top of the page, and select Hypothesis from the drop-down list.

In the hypothesis creation page, you can add details, including Titles, Campaign, Start Date, Due Date, Workflow, and Fields. You can also apply the hypothesis to the most appropriate campaign, and select from a drop-down list of workflows. Click Create to create the hypothesis.

The new hypothesis page displays and has the following tabs:

• Brief – Select a brief template to apply a structured test plan.
• Variations – Upload images or links to live web pages for on-screen commenting and annotations. Or directly embed files from Microsoft documents, Figma, or InVision.
• Experiment – Add the URL link of the experiment that this hypothesis represents for easy reference.  Choose to add experiment run dates, so that the start and stop interval of a live experiment is represented on the timeline view.
  Currently, Optimizely offers the ability to manually input your experiment links in Experiment Collaboration. Coming soon, Optimizely will release the ability to seamlessly link your experiments to Experiment Collaboration.
• Fields – Update or add fields to provide more metadata about this hypothesis for better organization and searchability.
• History – Provides an audit trail of interactions within the hypothesis over time. Who took what actions when is provided in an easy-to-read timeline format that corresponds with changes made in the hypothesis over time.

Create a hypothesis in a campaign

You can create hypotheses from each campaign and Experiment Collaboration helps reduce the amount of time it takes to set up hypotheses and ensure they are consistently tagged. On the Activities tab of a campaign, select Add > Hypothesis.

Enter the hypothesis title, select a workflow for the hypothesis, and define a due date for the hypothesis.

The most recently created hypotheses are displayed at the top of the list in the Activities tab of the campaign. You can view, access, and manage all content and non-content hypotheses your campaign depends on directly from this view. You can also get a visual display for the timing and due dates of all campaign activity by using the visual and timeline calendars in the Plan view.

Create a hypothesis from List view 

In the Plan view, the List view lets you create hypotheses and events to display upcoming activity dates.

To create a hypothesis in the List view, click + and select Hypothesis.

Add a hypothesis brief

On the Brief tab, upload files or enter a hypothesis description, encouraging collaborative brainstorming, and ensuring creators have information before beginning work (such as key objectives, audiences, and pillars). You can add a brief in several ways.

• Brief Template – Click Brief Template to select from a number of saved templates.

  

  A template is displayed to help you get started.

  

• Upload – Select Upload. You can connect to your Microsoft 365 OneDrive Account to upload a brief from there in one of the following formats:
  • Word
  • PowerPoint
  • Excel
  • PDF
  • Video (MOV, MP4)
  • Image Files (JPEG, GIF, SVG, and BMP)
  • Figma
  • InVision

  Unsupported files display a "no preview" icon, but remain available to download.

• Library – Select an asset from the library as your hypothesis brief.
• Add URL – Enter the URL to a file on Google, from Figma, Milanote, or non-gated website.

  

• Write a Brief – Open a text editor for adding a brief.

  Click Write a Brief and add a brief in the editor. While you write a brief, the text editor autosaves the draft. However, if you try to go to any other module while writing the brief, an alert warns that you have unsaved changes and asks if you want to discard the changes. Click Save when done.

Add fields to the hypothesis

Fields and field values may automatically populate from the campaign or brief. If your hypothesis has a workflow, only the fields defined in that workflow display. You can go to the Fields tab and add new fields for the hypothesis by selecting Add Fields. You can click Create New to create a field and then add it.

For single-select fields, you can keep the values that were inherited from the selected workflow or opt for the ones that were inherited from the chosen campaign. For multi-select fields, the values are merged.

You can also set up mandatory fields for their tasks, either during hypothesis creation or hypothesis completion.

Managing workflow dates

Forward and backward scheduling

Workflows have forward and backward scheduling logic so that when a Hypothesis Start Date, Hypothesis Due Date, or Step Due Date is changed, you can update only that date or update all subsequent dates by the same number of business days.

• Forwards and backwards scheduling triggers and automatically applies durations when due dates are assigned to steps (or if durations are already applied in the workflow settings).
  
• When you apply durations, users can update the date for the particular step or the other steps based on how many business days the date has moved forward or back.

  

• If you want to update other steps, you can also manually adjust dates or assign dates in the pop-up. You can only manually adjust dates that are in order with the rest of the workflow. You cannot edit the other dates.

  

• Completed or skipped steps do not have the due date impacted. If you choose to undo a completed or skipped step and that date is out of order, the original due date is removed so you can apply a new due date.

  

Update hypothesis start date and due date

Forward and backward scheduling applies for Hypothesis Start and Hypothesis Due Date. You can set the hypothesis start date or hypothesis due date from the hypothesis window. You can change the dates to your preference by clicking the dates located near the top of the page.

This opens a set of input boxes where you can set the date and time that you want to start or complete the hypothesis. After you set the date, click Save.

Smart durations

If you activate Smart Durations for the workflow from the settings page, then due dates of subsequent steps and the hypothesis move backward or forward by the number of business days by which the previous step was delayed or completed earlier. For more information, see Manage Workflows.

If the hypothesis has other dependent hypotheses, then smart durations triggers a window to also select the date changes to the dependent hypotheses.

Comment on a hypothesis

• Click Comments on the hypothesis page to post comments.
  
• Click the comment icon on a step then enter a comment in the comment box.
  

Select the option from the context menu (...) to Edit and Delete your comments in the hypothesis page.

Click Show Resolved to display the comments that are marked as Resolved.

Watch or unwatch the hypothesis

In the new hypothesis view, you can add relevant users to the hypothesis as a watcher or watch the hypothesis yourself. Use the eye icon located on the top right corner of the hypothesis page.

When you click on the eye icon, a drop-down list displays to Start Watching or search and select another watcher.

When you try to add users as a watcher that do not have access to the hypothesis, you can provide them with Edit, View, or Comment access to that hypothesis.

You can stop watching a hypothesis by selecting the eye icon and clicking Stop watching. You can also click x beside another user to remove them as a watcher.

You can view and update your notification settings by selecting the Notifications tab on your profile. To navigate to your profile, select your profile image in the upper right, then select your name. 

View hypothesis history

Each hypothesis has a History tab that provides a detailed activity log of work that takes place in the hypothesis to maintain end-to-end visibility, displaying who made what changes, and why.

Actions captured within the History tab include:

• Changes to hypothesis title and/or brief.
• Changes to workflows (such as step owner, step status, due dates).
• Added or resolved comments (within hypothesis or individual piece of content).
• Changes to hypothesis Labels or Custom Fields.
• Uploads, downloads, and added attachments.

Delete a hypothesis

To delete a hypothesis, select the context menu (...) and click Delete. Confirm your deletion.