An introduction to champion-challenger

To actually be champion-challenger, it has to drive change, the challenger must be allowed to ascend to the throne. But, and this is perhaps a nuance better captured by the test-and-learn terminology, this has to be done in a controlled, scientific approach.

We don’t actually make a series of complete substitutions of one strategy for another, instead, we’re always running at least two strategies side-by-side. In examples, we often talk about 80% going down the champion stream and 20% going down the challenger but in reality, we set the split based on the degree of risk involved, how much of a variation we’d expect to see, the size of the portfolio and the sophistication of the team managing it. This is all based on statistical sampling theories, and I won’t go into them further in this article.