# The effect distribution: The missing piece in experimentation programs

DevFeed: [The effect distribution: The missing piece in experimentation programs](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/the-effect-distribution-the-missing-piece-in-experimentation-programs-2266.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://www.datadoghq.com/blog/effect-distribution-in-experimentation/>)

Author: Tyler Buffington

Published: 2026-07-02T00:00:00Z

Content type: article

Language: en

Sources: [Datadog | The Monitor blog](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/datadog-the-monitor-blog.md>)

Topics: [experiments](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/experiments.md>)

Tags: [a-b-testing](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/a-b-testing.md>), [experiment](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/experiment.md>), [experimentation](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/experimentation.md>), [experiments](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/experiments.md>), [testing](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/testing.md>)

## AI overview

The article explains why effect distributions are essential for interpreting results across experimentation programs. It shows how statistically significant results can all be false positives when true effects are concentrated at zero, and introduces the challenge of estimating true effects from noisy observed effects.

## Source excerpt

Learn about the importance of considering the effect distribution when running experiments.