A week of field data beats a month of arguing
Lab numbers start arguments. Field numbers end them, because nobody can claim the lab was configured wrong.
A lab run is a single measurement of a single machine on a single network, and every stakeholder knows it. Field data is thousands of real sessions, and it is very hard to argue with a percentile.
Key takeaways
- Collect the three vitals from real sessions before you optimise anything.
- Report the 75th percentile, not the average.
- Keep a week of history so a regression is visible as a shape, not a number.