How Christophe Perrin is Revolutionizing Experimentation at ABsmartly

Experimentation has the power to transform how companies make decisions. Christophe Perrin knows this better than most. From his early days at Optimizely, to his influential role at Booking.com—and now as Head of Product at ABsmartly—Chris’ career is defined by an enthusiasm for data, innovation, and empowering teams to experiment. With his knack for making the complex accessible, he’s on a mission to make experimentation the cornerstone of great product development.

From Theory to Practice at Optimizely

In 2013, Chris took his first real steps into experimentation at Optimizely. At the time, Optimizely was just expanding outside the United States. Joining their EMEA office in Amsterdam, Chris’ role at Optimizely was mostly a technical one. He supported and trained customers to experiment properly.

Back then, A/B testing wasn’t as mainstream as it is today. It was still quite an unfamiliar concept for many. Use cases for A/B testing were very similar to the ones which led Dan Siroker, founder of Optimizely, to create his platform in the first place. Teams using that product mainly focused on small UI tweaks such as changing images, button colors, copy, or testing alternate headlines. A/B testing tools were pretty much exclusively targeted at marketing and CRO teams. Therefore, the single most important capability of an A/B testing platform in those days was the WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor. WYSIWYG editors let anyone create experiments and make changes to the website without a developer.

While groundbreaking for non-technical teams, this approach can create tension with development teams. Why? Because changes to the website were usually made without a formal product development process. WYSIWYG editors write cumbersome code that inevitably introduce bugs, slow down the website, and create the dreaded “flicker effect.”

Experimenting at Scale at Booking.com

By 2016, Chris moved to Booking.com. Booking is famous for embedding experimentation into every layer of its operations. That move was a game-changer for him. “I thought I knew a lot about A/B testing, and I did… but I also realized how little I knew about Product Experimentation,” Chris admits, “It’s a totally different world, and it totally humbled me.”

At the time, the internal experimentation teams at Booking.com and other forward-thinking companies (like Spotify or Microsoft) were well ahead both from the product and experimentation culture point of view. At Booking.com, experimentation wasn’t an afterthought or a luxury. It was embedded in the DNA of how decisions were made. No feature, no update, no change—however small—went live without rigorous A/B testing. The process was thorough, and the expectations were clear: if you want to make a change, you need the data to back it up.

True Democratization of Experimentation

What really struck Chris was how democratized experimentation was at Booking.com. Experimentation wasn’t confined to a few specialists. Anyone, from designers to engineers, could propose and run experiments. Booking.com doesn’t have, nor need, a WYSIWYG editor. That’s because all experiments are server side, and all teams have the resources they need to be autonomous in building and running experiments. All tech team employees empowered to run experiments and make decisions. In fact, that empowerment is what made experimentation so successful. The organizational structure, democratized access to the tool, and the trust between management and employees is what grounded the culture of experimentation.

With experimentation supporting the decision making process throughout the organization, that means that thousands of experiments run at any given time. This approach ensures a high quality and reliable experimentation process at scale was one of Chris’ main focus areas in his years at booking. Besides training and education, Chris helped Booking switch from Fixed Horizon to Group Sequential Testing. It was the biggest driver to experimentation quality because it helped reduce the risk of peeking and jumping to premature conclusions, a common pitfall in traditional A/B testing.

Chris’ other priorities were to scale experimentation to new strategic areas. He brought teams responsible for partner platforms, flight booking, and rental car booking onboard the experimentation platform. More importantly, he got buy-in from a process point of view. In such a complex business environment, decisions aren’t made in isolation. Therefore, understanding how each experiment contributes to the overall business objectives and can impact another part of the business is key to making good informed product and business decisions. This was key in helping Booking.com maintain its edge in the competitive travel industry.

Joining ABsmartly

After years of pushing boundaries at Booking.com, Chris was ready for a new challenge. When Jonas Alves, the mastermind behind Booking.com’s experimentation platform, approached him to join ABsmartly, the moment felt right. Jonas had a vision to build a vendor platform which would match the capabilities of such an in-house platform like Booking.com and make product experimentation accessible to any product team around the world.

For Chris, moving to ABsmartly was an easy “yes.” He was drawn to ABsmartly’s mission to empower anyone in a company to experiment. Unlike traditional tools, which are often geared towards marketing use cases, ABsmartly is built to serve the needs of developers and product managers alike. It offers features like real-time data processing and statistical safeguards designed to support experimentation throughout the entire product development lifecycle.

One of Chris’ goals at ABsmartly is to create a platform that works for everyone—technical or not. He wants to take lessons from Booking.com’s internal systems and make them adaptable for organizations of varying sizes and complexities. This isn’t just about technology—it’s about fostering a culture of experimentation that encourages collaboration and breaks down silos.

What Good Experimentation Looks Like

Christophe Perrin’s approach to experimentation is built on three core principles: curiosity, evidence, and continuous learning.

Answering Questions

For Chris, experimentation is all about curiosity. It’s about having the courage to ask, “What if we tried something different?” It’s not about playing it safe. It’s about cultivating a curious mindset by encouraging people and teams to ask questions and challenge assumptions. Not every experiment will succeed, but every experiment should be an opportunity to learn something valuable about our users.

Data-Lead Decisions

By basing product and business decisions on data (not opinions), and focusing on measurable outcomes, experimentation strips away bias. Plus, it helps teams prioritize. This, in turn, leads to more reliable and impactful outcomes for the business and the customers.

Iteration as a Superpower

Experimentation is an ongoing process of discovery, iteration, and refinement. Every experiment, whether it succeeds or fails, adds to a team’s understanding of their users and their product. This iterative approach also keeps teams aligned with user needs. It’s not about what you think is best. It’s about listening to what your users tell you through their behavior.

Shaping the Future at ABsmartly

With Chris as Head of Product at ABsmartly, the company is more than an experimentation platform. It’s a partner for organizations that want to innovate and grow. ABsmartly’s product roadmap is ambitious. We aim to support our users throughout the entire product development life cycle. From ideation and discovery to delivery, we help clients make the best possible decisions for their customers and their business. But it’s more than just building tools. Chris is passionate about fostering a culture of curiosity and data-driven decision-making. At ABsmartly, he helps companies see experimentation not as an optional extra, but as core to how they operate.

Under Chris’ guidance, ABsmartly aims to change the way organizations think about experimentation—making it accessible, impactful, and central to creating exceptional products.

Curious to see how ABsmartly is shaping up with Chris on board? Get a Demo.