The first job is not to sell the solution. It is to learn whether a specific group of people repeatedly experiences a problem important enough to change their behavior.
Write the risky assumption
Name the belief that would break the idea if it were false. Keep it behavioral and specific:
Operations leads at 20–100 person software companies lose at least three hours a week assembling customer-health reports, and they already use workarounds to reduce that time.
Avoid “people want a better way to…” A wish is weak evidence. Repeated effort, spending, delay, or risk is stronger.
Recruit for the behavior
Talk to people who have encountered the situation recently. Screen for recent actions and direct responsibility for the outcome.
- When did this last happen?
- What was your role in solving it?
- What did you use or try?
- Was anyone else involved in the decision?
Start with five conversations. If the stories are wildly different, narrow the audience before adding more interviews.
Use a neutral interview script
Open with context: “I am learning how teams handle X. I am not selling anything, and blunt answers are useful.” Then ask:
- Tell me about the last time this happened.
- What triggered it?
- Walk me through what you did.
- What was frustrating, expensive, slow, or risky?
- What have you tried to improve it?
- Who cared about the outcome?
- What happens if nothing changes?
Stay in the past tense. “Would you use…” invites imagination. “What did you do…” reveals behavior.
Record behavior and exact language
Make one row per interview with four columns: situation, current workaround, consequence, and exact language. After five interviews, look for repeated patterns.
Strong signals include:
- the same trigger appears across interviews;
- people have built a workaround or paid for an imperfect option;
- the consequence has a visible cost;
- the buyer can be identified; and
- people volunteer introductions or ask when they can try something.
Compliments, feature ideas, and hypothetical willingness to pay are interesting but weak.
Decide what changed
End the round by writing three sentences:
- We believed: your original risky assumption.
- We learned: the behavioral pattern in the interviews.
- Therefore: continue, narrow, change the problem, or stop.
The purpose of validation is not certainty. It is earning the right to make the next, slightly more expensive bet.
You are done when
- You have five recent, behavior-based conversations.
- The notes preserve the customer’s words alongside your interpretation.
- You can identify the trigger, workaround, consequence, and likely buyer.
- You have written the next assumption to test.