Assumptions Map
This exercise is particularly useful to help evaluate the viability of new products, services, and businesses.
Consider what assumptions are being made, and then score them in terms of evidence and importance to understand the validation you’ll need to move forward.
In this activity, you'll generate multiple assumptions with different stimulus questions; then map them on a 2x2 grid measuring evidence and importance.
The top right-hand corner of the grid will show you the assumptions that are critical, but for which you have limited evidence. This will give you a clear imperative for what testing you need to do to validate and refine your business strategy.
Use the dark navy cards to brainstorm assumed target markets. Who do we think our audiences are? Are there primary, secondary, and tertiary markets? What are their demographic and psychographic profiles?
Use the blue cards to brainstorm assumed pain points. What problems do we think we're solving?
Use the orange cards to brainstorm assumed benefits. What useful, novel, and/or compelling benefits are we offering?
Use the purple cards to brainstorm feasibility. What do we assume to be true such that we can make this plan work?
Use the green cards to brainstorm sustainability. What are we assuming to be true for this to be scalable, adaptable, and sustainable over time?
Use the 2x2 grid with importance on the vertical axis, and Known through to Unknown on the horizontal axis
Discuss and place all the generated cards where you believe they belong on the grid
Brainstorm experiments you can run to test and validate the assumptions, focusing on the assumptions that sit in the top right hand quadrant of critically important assumptions for which we have little evidence.
Assign roles, responsibilities, and timelines including milestones to run the experiments.
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