mapping-discovery-assumptionslisted

# Mapping Discovery Assumptions ## Overview Every idea is a stack of beliefs. This skill makes them **explicit, falsifiable, and prioritized**, so experimentation targets what actually matters — and so the team learns *before* it builds, not after. ## When to use - You have a candidate solution, value proposition, or initiative with many unknowns. - The team disagrees about what is "true," or is about to build on an untested premise. - You need to decide what to research or test next. ## Workflow 1. **Surface assumptions.** Write each belief as a falsifiable statement: **"We believe that…"** One belief per note. Phrasing it this way forces the mindset that you might be wrong. 2. **Categorize by risk** (color-code) — cover **all four** of Cagan's big product risks, not just feasibility: - **Desirability** — do customers want it? (owner: design/UX) - **Usability** — can users figure out how to use it? (owner: design/UX) - **Feasibility** — can we build/scale it? (owner: engineering) - **Viability** — does it work for the business? (owner: PM) - *(optional)* **Adaptability** — can it survive a changing environment? · **Ethical** — should we build it at all? (Strategyzer's classic set is desirability/feasibility/viability and folds usability under desirability; track usability **explicitly** so the map is a complete risk inventory consistent with `running-product-discovery`'s four risks.) 3. **Plot on the 2×2.** Axes: **Importance** (Y: if this is wrong, d