A/B test a conversational agent when 'success' is fuzzy, resolution, CSAT, deflection without anger
Standard A/B machinery assumes a crisp conversion event; agents give you fuzzy, delayed, gameable outcomes. The metric hierarchy, the reopen-window trick, and the sample-size reality check that win this question.
Updated Sep 2026 · Grounded in real Forward Deployed Engineer interview loops and written to a senior-engineer editorial bar.
Standard A/B machinery assumes a crisp conversion event; agents give you fuzzy, delayed, gameable outcomes. The metric hierarchy, the reopen-window trick, and the sample-size reality check that win this question.
Lead with where the obvious approach breaks, because that is the judgment they are screening for — most candidates jump straight to the happy path and lose the room.
Then walk the failure back through the pipeline in order, naming the one metric the customer's exec sponsor actually cares about before you propose the fix.
