Ingredient 19. Test Your Biggest Hypothesis First

101 Design Ingredients to Solve Big Tech Problems — by Eewei Chen (27 / 125)

👈 Time It Right | TOC | Take a Leap of Faith 👉

Ben Franklin proved lightning is electricity.

“If we worked on the assumption that what is accepted as true really is true, then there would be little hope for advance.”
— Orville Wright, inventor and aviation pioneer

The Problem

Teams don’t test often or early enough, making it difficult to fix problems later.

The Solution

Create experiences to test risky assumptions. Use what you learn to create useful products.

• Do it quickly. Identify assumptions and test them immediately. This may be a high-risk new idea or technology with many dependencies. I love going to hack events like Startup Weekend because they demonstrate how quickly business concepts can be created and pitched — in most instances, in less than forty-eight hours.[47]
• Keep it simple. Interview and conduct usability studies to get customer feedback early. Don’t overengineer prototypes; create the lowest-fidelity prototype you need to successfully get an idea across. I have created…