Experiments, testing & rollout · Core

Survivorship bias

Also called: survival bias

ELI5

Looking only at winners hides the failures.

Used in conversation

“Customer interviews showed survivorship bias because churned users were excluded.”

Definition

Distortion caused by focusing on cases that remain visible while ignoring those that failed or disappeared.

Here “Survivorship bias” means: Distortion caused by focusing on cases that remain visible while ignoring those that failed or disappeared.

Pitch context

You will see “Survivorship bias” in product strategy decks, roadmaps, experiments and architecture reviews when the discussion reaches experiments, testing & rollout.

Why it matters: It helps a reader interpret experiments, testing & rollout without confusing the measure, decision, role or evidence being discussed.

Sources & evidence · 2

Supporting source families. This entry is an editorial synthesis rather than a quotation from one canonical glossary.