By Faith Harron
Who:
For this exercise, you can take the lens of yourself as an individual, or your business—up to you!
What:
The “mini-experiment” is a powerful, small, manageable way to test the potential impact of a big change before you make it—collecting the necessary data from your life or business to understand what that step might look like in advance.
Why:
Big changes can be intimidating, unsustainable (if done all at once!), or have unforeseen impacts—even if well-researched beforehand. Likewise, if you’re making a pivot, you might not have all the information required upfront— you may need to gather it. The point is to start, but start small (really small). Make it manageable, something it would be hard to fail at. That way you can test before you take the leap
When:
Anytime you’re thinking about a career or business pivot, big change, or considering (perhaps for the first time!) what you actually want to do in life.
Where:
Anywhere. If you’re with a team, I recommend a whiteboard. By yourself, try paper and pen first; preferably no digital tools to start out with.
About Faith Harron
Faith Harron is the owner of Esper Collective, a local business focused on development of next-generation skills, like soft skills and AI upskilling for business value. Harron is an award-winning writer, speaker, and founder from Bismarck, ND. Feel free to reach out at [email protected] with any questions or comments.
How (including examples):
1: Start with a goal. What do you want this mini experiment to help you accomplish?
- Example 1: I want to learn more about what I actually
like to do
- Example 2: I want to increase sales for my business.
2. Brainstorm a list of steps you could take toward
that goal.
- Example 1: I could make a list of all the things I liked to do as a kid, ask people what they think I like/what might suit me, etc.
- Example 2: I could research and create a list of marketing strategies, call fellow business owners or my team to brainstorm ideas, etc.
3. Make a list of important factors related to your goal in 1, and rank each step on your list by how much it fulfills those factors.
- Example 1: Factors that matter for figuring out what I actually like to do include: level of excitement around the item, feasibility, consistency, relevance, etc. I’m going to rank all my ideas from 2 on those dimensions
- Example 2: Factors that matter for figuring out how to increase sales include: target audience relevancy, whether it’s an existing capability, consistency, cost, etc. I’ll take my list of ideas from step 2 and rank them with these factors.
4. Select one step with a lot of pros and break it down into a small, consistent action (ideally something you could do on a regular basis—at least once a week).
- Example 1: I’d like to get back into martial arts to see if I still like it, and I’ll start by taking at least one 60-minute lesson a week.
- Example 2: I’d like to see if Facebook ads could be a good way to drive additional revenue for my business, and I’ll start by running at least 1 different ad each week.
5. Commit to a timeframe that you’re going to perform the step.
- Example 1: I’m going to try martial arts for 8 sessions (likely, 2 months).
- Example 2: I’m going to try 8 Facebook ads over 8
weeks.
6. At the end of the timeframe, reflect on what you learned and decide what to do next. You may want to adjust the step and continue, try another experiment, and/ or expand the step – making a bigger change.
- Example 1: I like the cardio aspect of martial arts, but I’d like to try something that’s less of a time-bound commitment. I’m going to try a similar experiment, but with running instead.
- Example 2: The ads worked, but not evenly. Taking what I’ve learned from the best ads, I’m going to try running 3 different ads per week for another 2 months and see what I learn from that.
Did you know?
Faith was featured on the May 2025 cover of Bis-Man INC!
To learn more about Faith Harron or work with Esper Collective, visit:
espercollective.com
Instagram | @esper.collective