On Saturday, I’ll be mentoring teams at Lean Startup Machine, so this morning I took advantage of the train ride into town to consider what I would love to see from each group. The below “fill in the blank” sentences (an embedded slideshare) are intended to force someone to concisely break out their core assumptions.
It might even be an interesting exercise for a more developed startup too. If everyone on your team had to fill this out, would they be on the same page?
If you can’t see the slides, here is the format:
1. Target Customer/User and Need Assumptions:
I believe _________________ have a need to _________________________________________.
2. Solution Assumption
This need can be solved with ________________________________________________________.
3. Business Model Assumptions
My paying customer is _____________________.
They will pay me via _______________________.
4. Competition Assumptions
My primary competition will be ______________ and ______________.
We will beat them in the market due to __________________ and __________________.
5. Customer Assumptions Part 1
My early adopters will be ____________________.
I will acquire them through _____________________________________________.
6. Customer Assumptions Part 2
I will acquire the majority of my users/customers through _______________________ and ________________________.
7. Product Assumptions
My biggest product risk is ___________________.
We will solve this through ________________________________________________.