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The Experimentation Edge · July 1 · 28 min

What the Expedia Group cannot measure, it cannot ship

Summary Amir Moghaddam, Director of Software Engineering at Expedia Group, joins host Ashley Stirrup on The Experimentation Edge to make the case that measurement is not a reporting step but a gate: what you cannot measure, you cannot ship. Drawing on nearly four years at DoorDash and his current work leading Expedia's air booking platform, Amir explains why he refuses to label experiments winners or losers, how a "failed" pricing test pushed his team toward full personalization, and why a three sided marketplace forces hard trade-offs between competing metrics. The conversation closes on how the same experimentation discipline now applies to shipping and measuring AI. Built for product managers, engineers, data scientists, and growth leaders who care about rigor over opinion. Chapters 00:00 Cold open 00:50 Meet Amir and the air booking platform at Expedia 03:10 DoorDash, growth, and a 70 experiment year 04:20 Three kinds of experimentation at Expedia 06:30 AI velocity and the new frontier model pace 08:30 What you cannot measure, you cannot ship 10:45 The DoorDash carousel and the price experiment 12:45 The three sided marketplace and competing metrics 16:55 There are no losing experiments 20:45 Predictability, LLMs, and Expedia's road ahead Takeaways "What you cannot measure, you cannot ship" — if you can't measure an outcome, you can't decide whether it's better, so you're just debating opinions. Measurement spans three live dimensions: spend (more with less), speed (sprints instead of quarters), and quality, with guardrail "do no harm" metrics on top. There are no losing experiments. A flat result is a signal to either refine the hypothesis or step back and look from a completely different angle. DoorDash's price experiment proved price by itself doesn't predict orders. Different customers want different things at different times, which pushed the team toward personalization. A three sided marketplace (buyers, merchants, Dashers) makes metrics compete. Running the test is easy; deciding what to optimize when goals conflict is the real work. Connect with the Guest LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirmoghaddam Website: https://www.expediagroup.com Sponsor GrowthBook is the warehouse-native platform for experimentation, feature flags, and product analytics trusted by AI-native product teams at 3,000+ companies worldwide. Go to growthbook.io

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Summary

Amir Moghaddam, Director of Software Engineering at Expedia Group, joins host Ashley Stirrup on The Experimentation Edge to make the case that measurement is not a reporting step but a gate: what you cannot measure, you cannot ship. Drawing on nearly four years at DoorDash and his current work leading Expedia's air booking platform, Amir explains why he refuses to label experiments winners or losers, how a "failed" pricing test pushed his team toward full personalization, and why a three sided marketplace forces hard trade-offs between competing metrics. The conversation closes on how the same experimentation discipline now applies to shipping and measuring AI. Built for product managers, engineers, data scientists, and growth leaders who care about rigor over opinion.


Chapters

00:00 Cold open
00:50 Meet Amir and the air booking platform at Expedia
03:10 DoorDash, growth, and a 70 experiment year
04:20 Three kinds of experimentation at Expedia
06:30 AI velocity and the new frontier model pace
08:30 What you cannot measure, you cannot ship
10:45 The DoorDash carousel and the price experiment
12:45 The three sided marketplace and competing metrics
16:55 There are no losing experiments
20:45 Predictability, LLMs, and Expedia's road ahead


Takeaways

  • "What you cannot measure, you cannot ship" — if you can't measure an outcome, you can't decide whether it's better, so you're just debating opinions.
  • Measurement spans three live dimensions: spend (more with less), speed (sprints instead of quarters), and quality, with guardrail "do no harm" metrics on top.
  • There are no losing experiments. A flat result is a signal to either refine the hypothesis or step back and look from a completely different angle.
  • DoorDash's price experiment proved price by itself doesn't predict orders. Different customers want different things at different times, which pushed the team toward personalization.
  • A three sided marketplace (buyers, merchants, Dashers) makes metrics compete. Running the test is easy; deciding what to optimize when goals conflict is the real work.



Connect with the Guest

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirmoghaddam
Website: https://www.expediagroup.com

Sponsor
GrowthBook is the warehouse-native platform for experimentation, feature flags, and product analytics trusted by AI-native product teams at 3,000+ companies worldwide.

Go to growthbook.io

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