# Content Experiment Brief

Document a content hypothesis, audience, controlled variants, exposure, primary outcome, guardrails, duration, risks, analysis, and decision rule.

## Usage note

Experiment only where uncertainty is genuine and both experiences remain accurate, accessible, and safe. Do not randomize legally required information, conceal material conditions, or expose high-risk users without qualified review.

## How to use this template

1. Define the user problem, evidence, causal mechanism, and why an experiment is appropriate.
2. Create controlled accurate variants and specify population, assignment, exposure, and risk.
3. Predefine primary outcome, guardrails, sample, duration, exclusions, and stopping rules.
4. Validate implementation, run the test, and annotate safety, data, and external events.
5. Analyze uncertainty, apply the decision rule, and preserve the result and content versions.

## Blank template

### Question and hypothesis

- **Experiment ID and owner:** [Enter]
- **User task and audience:** [Enter]
- **Observed barrier:** [Evidence]
- **Current content/behavior:** [Enter]
- **Hypothesis:** [If X, then Y because Z]
- **Why experimentation is appropriate:** [Explain]
- **Decision this result informs:** [Enter]

### Design

- **Control:** [Exact content/context]
- **Variant:** [Exact content/context]
- **Intended difference:** [One mechanism]
- **Population and assignment:** [Enter]
- **Exposure and contamination:** [Enter]
- **Exclusions:** [Predefine]
- **Duration/sample rationale:** [Analyst]
- **Concurrent tests/changes:** [List]

### Safety and measurement

- **Primary outcome:** [Definition/version]
- **Quality/risk guardrails:** [List]
- **Accessibility/localization review:** [Enter]
- **Privacy/consent review:** [Enter]
- **High-risk or vulnerable users:** [Handling]
- **Instrumentation QA:** [Reference]
- **Safety stop:** [Define]
- **Data-quality stop:** [Define]

### Analysis and action

- **Predefined comparison:** [Enter]
- **Estimate and uncertainty:** [Enter]
- **Guardrail result:** [Enter]
- **Missing data/limitations:** [Enter]
- **Decision rule outcome:** [Enter]
- **Decision:** [Ship / Control / Iterate / Investigate / Roll back]
- **Release owner:** [Enter]
- **Record and next question:** [Enter]