Campaign to get people to face the assumptions they have made about how people think, feel and behave before they build new product and features.

1. Developing Effective Propositions
with Julia Shalet

2. Starting Point: Recognise Assumptions
Consider those
dangerous
assumptions
you make about
what people
need, want and
how they are
going to benefit
from your
proposition

3. Turn Assumptions into Testable Hypotheses
 Assumptions are vague, often optimistic and
untestable.
 The vaguer they are, the harder they are to
disprove.
 What makes a good hypothesis?
 They are relatively specific and we can easily see
how to design an experiment to get the data that
could disprove that hypothesis.
Tip: Think carefully – does evidence already exist elsewhere?

4. Next: Ask all those underlying questions
Question specifically
the who, where, what,
when why and how of
your assumptions.
Let’s get an example to
work on…

5. Create a statement of what you are trying
to achieve
We believe that there is a revenue opportunity
to provide gluten free home-delivered meals to
working dads aged 45 – 55 who find themselves
home alone with no food.
“
”

6. Add Success Criteria
We will know our experiment has succeeded
when we find that > 20% of those dads are
actively seeking gluten free meals and
currently placing orders that cost >£8 more
than once a month.
“
”
Tip: Likely there will be multiple hypotheses with their
own success criteria and experiments to be designed.

7. Risky Assumption
Identify Underlying Questions
Turn it into a Statement
Add Success Criteria
= Testable Hypothesis
Process

8. So what have you got?

9. Design the Experiment
 Who are you going
to run the
experiment with?
 Where are you
going to find
them?
 What method are
you going to use to
learn from them?

10. Who to recruit?
 They have the problem you
are trying to solve
 They are aware that they
have the problem
 They have been actively
looking for a solution
 They have tried to put
together a solution
 They have budget to pay for
a solution to the problem
Find Early Adopters

11. Natural Habitat & Face to Face
• To gauge people’s pain
• To assess their
workarounds
• To pick up on visual and
vocal clues
Where will you find them & how will
you learn from them?

12.  One on One
Conversation
 Group Discussion
 Observation
 Day in the Life Diaries…
Example methods you can use…
Tip: Generally, surveys are for quantifying
after you have qualified the problem exists

13. Your Turn:
 Who are you going to
run the experiment
with?
 Where are you going
to find them?
 What method are you
going to use to learn
from them?

14. More tips available from productdoctor.co.uk
 Choose appropriate research methods
 Practice doing your own research
 Recruit respondents
 Position and structure the session
 Keep respondents honest and open
 Dig deep for relevant information
 Gather real not hypothetical insight
 Interpret Results