What is Experimentation Gamification? A Complete Guide

Experimentation gamification is the practice of applying game mechanics to the A/B testing process to increase team engagement and improve decision-making.

Definition

Experimentation gamification is when you add elements like predictions, competitions, rewards, and social features to how your team interacts with experiments.

Instead of passively receiving experiment results, team members actively participate by:

Why it works

The psychology is simple: when people have skin in the game, they pay attention.

Research shows that prediction markets consistently outperform expert forecasts. When your team predicts experiment outcomes, they're more likely to:

• Read the hypothesis carefully - They need to understand what's being tested to make a good prediction
• Follow the results - They want to know if they were right
• Learn from outcomes - Correct or not, they remember what happened

Key components

Virtual currency

Team members bet virtual coins on their predictions. This creates stakes without real financial risk.

The currency should:

Leaderboards

Public rankings drive engagement through social comparison. The best leaderboards:

Predictions/Bets

The core mechanic. Team members predict which variant will win before results are in.

Good prediction systems:

Common concerns

"This sounds like gambling"

It's not. There's no real money involved. Think of it more like fantasy sports or prediction markets.

"Will this distract from real work?"

The opposite, actually. It makes people more engaged with experiment results, not less productive.

"What if people game the system?"

With well-designed mechanics (like pool-based payouts), gaming the system requires actually being good at predictions.

Getting started

The fastest way to add gamification to your experimentation program:

• Connect your A/B testing platform to a tool like ExperimentBets
• Set up a Slack channel for experiment announcements
• Let your team start placing predictions

Most teams see engagement increase within the first week.