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An idea is a hypothesis, not a plan. A workshop is the cheapest, most reliable way to find out whether that hypothesis deserves the next ninety days of your life. This guide walks through the six steps in order. Run them solo or with a team; expect the first pass to take two hours and the full loop to take thirty days.
- 1
Frame the idea in one sentence
Write the idea as: 'For [audience], we will [do what], because [why now].' Force the team to compress until every word earns its place. Ambiguity hides bad ideas; precision exposes them.
- 2
Surface assumptions
Brainstorm everything that must be true for the idea to work — audience exists, problem is painful, solution is buildable, channel reaches them, willingness to pay. List 15-30 assumptions in 10 minutes; do not filter yet.
- 3
Rank by risk
Plot each assumption on a 2x2 of likelihood-of-being-wrong vs damage-if-wrong. The top-right quadrant is your test queue. Everything else can wait.
- 4
Design cheap tests
For each top-risk assumption, design the cheapest experiment that could falsify it. Interviews, smoke pages, paid ads, prototypes, concierge MVPs. The goal is signal, not proof.
- 5
Run, document, decide
Run the tests in a single sprint. Document raw data and what you learned, separately. Decide: persevere, pivot, or kill. Write the decision and the reason.
- 6
Convert to a plan
Take what survived and turn it into a 90-day plan: milestones, owners, weekly metrics. Schedule the next workshop in 30 days to re-run steps 2-5 on fresh assumptions.
How to Workshop an Idea - FAQ
- How long does an idea workshop take?
- A focused team can complete steps 1-3 in two hours. Steps 4-5 take one to two weeks of execution. The full loop fits inside a 30-day cycle.
- Can I run this solo?
- Yes. The framework still works, but you'll lose the productive disagreement of a group. Compensate by writing every assumption down and seeking written feedback from at least two outside operators.
- How is this different from a hackathon?
- Hackathons build. Workshops decide what's worth building. Use a workshop before a hackathon, not instead of one.
- What if the idea fails the workshop?
- That's a successful workshop. You saved months by killing it on paper. Reuse the surviving assumptions to seed the next idea.
Sources & further reading
- The Lean Startup — Eric Ries
- Testing Business Ideas — David Bland & Alexander Osterwalder
- The Mom Test — Rob Fitzpatrick