Testing new products and features without running a traditional ‘test’

Bandits is a heuristic for things that steal money, like a row of slot machines. And you have to be an octopus to pull all of the bandit’s arms simultaneously. Hence Multi-armed bandit. And the octopus. Source: Microsoft Research

Multi-armed Bandits (MAB) is a crucial and under-discussed approach to product testing/experiment problems, from recommender engines to ad placement to headline usage. At a high level, MAB helps you identify the best product feature/headline/ad/recommendation strategy without running an expensive and time-consuming A/B test.