Tips
January 27, 2025

How to Set Up Eppo Protocols

Eric Metelka
Before joining Eppo as Head of Product, Eric led experimentation programs at companies like Cameo and Cars.com

Experimentation can feel overwhelming, especially for non-technical users. Questions like "Who do I even talk to about running an experiment?" or "Which metrics should I measure?" often slow down progress. Miscommunication, outdated processes, and confusion around governance can create roadblocks that limit efficiency and results.

Eppo Protocols are here to solve that. By introducing standardization, automation, and governance, these protocols remove the guesswork and manual overhead. They eliminate pain points like waiting for committee meetings or struggling with unreliable metrics and replace them with a seamless, repeatable process.

Beyond streamlining these complexities, Eppo Protocols are designed to foster a culture of experimentation that empowers everyone on your team, not just data scientists or technical experts. With self-serve experimentation, even non-technical users can confidently kick off tests and use trusted, pre-validated templates. 

With Eppo, experimentation becomes collaborative, accessible, and actionable for every team member. By making it easier to ask the right questions and trust the process, Eppo Protocols unlock better insights and better results for your organization.

What Are Eppo Protocols?

Eppo Protocols are reusable frameworks that standardize the key components of an experiment. They go beyond just templates, introducing governance policies that ensure consistency, quality, and speed across teams. They are pre-built playbooks with essential metrics, analysis settings, and decision-making rules.

For example, teams don't need to establish metrics or configurations from scratch for every test. Instead, protocols guide experimentation with best practices and reduce the risk of errors. By automating repetitive tasks, protocols free teams to focus on insights and innovation.

Why Use Eppo Protocols?

Protocols redefine how teams run experiments, breaking down barriers while enhancing efficiency and accuracy. Here's what you gain:

  1. Faster Experimentation: Pre-configured templates enable teams to set up experiments in minutes instead of hours. By reducing dependencies on data science teams or the need to wait for approvals from an "experimentation committee," teams can avoid bottlenecks and move with unparalleled speed.
  2. Reduced Errors: Predefined settings and built-in checks catch potential issues before they arise, ensuring experiments run smoothly and results remain reliable.
  3. Improved Governance: Standardized processes align teams around a common framework, fostering better collaboration and scalability for cross-functional initiatives.
  4. Actionable Insights: Automatically generate clear, impactful recommendations from decision rules. This removes the guesswork from post-experiment analysis and empowers teams to act confidently on their results.

Build momentum and unlock experimentation without compromising quality or precision. With Eppo Protocols, your team is equipped to innovate faster and more effectively than ever.

A Step-by-Step Guide to Setting Up Eppo Protocols 

Now, let's set them up in Eppo. Watch our step-by-step implementation video to learn this process, and follow our guide.

Step 1: Create a New Protocol

To begin, ensure you have administrator privileges in Eppo. Setting up a protocol starts in the Admin section.

  1. Navigate to the Protocols Tab: Locate the "Protocols" section under Admin tools and click on Create New Protocol.
  2. Name Your Protocol: Choose a descriptive name that reflects its purpose, such as "Homepage A/B Testing Protocol" or "Email Campaign Metrics Protocol."
  3. Assign Permissions: Determine which teams will use this protocol. You can keep it global (accessible to all teams) or restrict it to specific groups like Growth or Marketing.

Step 2: Define Analysis Settings

Eppo Protocols simplify experiment analysis by creating default setups for centralized statistics.

  1. Select the Testing Entity: Define what you're analyzing, such as "users" or "accounts." For clarity, specify data sources, like feature flagging tables.
  2. Establish Statistical Parameters: Configure essential settings like the confidence threshold (e.g., 95%) and any necessary multiple-testing corrections, such as Bonferroni adjustments.
  3. Set Default Experiment Duration: Set a default experiment duration by considering test complexity and traffic levels. For example, a 14-day period might be appropriate for high-traffic areas like a homepage.

Step 3: Configure Decision Criteria

Decision criteria standardize how success is measured and provide clear guidance backed by data.

  1. Assign a Primary Metric: Identify the key goal for your test. For example, a homepage experiment might prioritize metrics like first-time purchases.
  2. Add Guardrail Metrics: Monitor secondary metrics to avoid unintended consequences. For example, ensure that support ticket volume does not rise by more than X% to measure and maintain a positive user experience effectively.
  3. Set Recommendation Rules: Create predefined conditions for actions to take post-experiment:
    • Roll Out if the primary metric improves with no significant negative guardrails.
    • Extend Runtime if results are inconclusive but promising.
    • Do Not Roll Out if the primary metric lacks improvement or guardrails show negative effects.

These rules ensure your team can act decisively when the experiment concludes.

Step 4: Add Metrics to the Protocol

Exploratory metrics answers questions about how end users’ behavior changes. With Eppo Protocols, you can predefine the exploratory metrics to include in experiments to  save time and minimize errors choosing the correct metrics.

  • Add Exploratory Metrics within the protocol itself.
  • Limit the number of metrics added per test, ensuring teams remain streamlined.
  • Automated quality checks, such as statistical corrections, are applied to all included metrics.

Eppo Protocols automate processes to ensure consistent, high-quality analysis. With self-serve experimentation, even non-technical users can confidently launch tests using trusted templates.

Step 5: Finalize and Use the Protocol

Once the analysis settings, decision criteria, and metrics are configured, publish the protocol for your teams.

When creating a new experiment, teams can select the protocol as a template. All predefined settings will load automatically, allowing teams to focus on tailoring specific aspects of their test without redoing foundational work.

Elevate Your Experimentation Workflow Today

Eppo Protocols make experimentation faster, simpler, and more robust. By introducing automation and governance into every stage of the testing process, protocols ensure your organization can make better, data-driven decisions without unnecessary delays or complications.

Start setting up protocols in Eppo to empower your teams to innovate at scale. The result? Faster cycles, sharper decisions, and a culture of confident experimentation.

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