Hi Leemay,
I’m curious about your views on the ethics of A/B testing. There are voices in the industry who believe A/B testing is unethical if the users don’t know they’re being used in this way.
You say above that “A/B testing enables you to evaluate that risky change or that risky idea on a subset of users.”
Isn’t that in itself unethical, to subject users who are not aware to potentially risky features? You use terminology like ‘blast radius’ above, which is a bit unsettling, as it seems you almost factor in ‘collateral damage’ when testing. That’s no way to treat your users.
I think this changes somewhat if certain users are opting in to be testers, but even then care and precautions should be taken.
I would be interested to know if the ethical question is at all covered in your book, or if it’s all ‘data-driven.’