How do you test and validate product assumptions?

1 Define your assumptions

The first step to test and validate your product assumptions is to define them clearly and explicitly. What are the key problems, needs, or goals that your product is trying to solve or address for your target audience? What are the expected benefits, outcomes, or features that your product will deliver or enable for your customers? What are the assumptions that underlie your value proposition, your customer segments, your channels, your revenue streams, and your cost structure? Write down your assumptions in a simple and testable format, such as "We believe that [customer segment] has [problem/need/goal] and will [benefit/outcome/feature] from our product."

2 Prioritize your assumptions

The next step to test and validate your product assumptions is to prioritize them according to their importance and uncertainty. Not all assumptions are equally critical or risky for your product success. Some assumptions are more essential to validate than others, because they have a higher impact on your product viability or desirability. Some assumptions are more uncertain than others, because they have less evidence or data to support them. You can use a simple matrix to rank your assumptions based on these two dimensions and focus on the ones that are most important and most uncertain.

3 Choose your methods

The third step to test and validate your product assumptions is to choose the appropriate methods and tools to collect and analyze data and feedback from your customers and potential users. Depending on your assumptions, your product stage, your resources, and your goals, you can use different methods to test and validate your assumptions, such as interviews, surveys, landing pages, prototypes, experiments, analytics, and more. The key is to choose the methods that are most suitable and feasible for your situation and that can provide you with the most relevant and reliable insights.

4 Design your tests

The fourth step to test and validate your product assumptions is to design your tests carefully and systematically. A good test should have a clear and specific objective, a well-defined hypothesis, a measurable and meaningful metric, a realistic and representative sample, a valid and reliable data source, and a fair and unbiased analysis. You should also plan how you will conduct your test, what resources you will need, how long it will take, and how you will document and report your results.

5 Run your tests

The fifth step to test and validate your product assumptions is to run your tests according to your design and plan. This is the stage where you actually collect and analyze data and feedback from your customers and potential users. You should follow the best practices and ethical principles of conducting user research, such as obtaining consent, respecting privacy, avoiding bias, ensuring quality, and being transparent. You should also monitor your tests closely and be ready to adjust or stop them if needed.

6 Learn from your results

The final step to test and validate your product assumptions is to learn from your results and act on your findings. You should interpret and synthesize your data and feedback in a way that helps you answer your objective and hypothesis. You should also evaluate and communicate your results in a clear and actionable way, such as using a validation board or a learning card. Based on your results, you should decide whether to pivot, persevere, or iterate on your product assumptions and move to the next stage of your product development cycle.

7 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?