Most founders following a lean startup approach understand the importance of documenting and validating assumptions. My team and I have been doing it since day one. But recently I began to realize that validating assumptions can also be a waste of time. In a startup your most precious resource is time and focus. If you waste too much time on things that don’t directly impact your ability to succeed, you will almost certainly fail. And if you do succeed, it will be based mostly on luck. Prioritization is Everything in a Startup
The best way to avoid wasting time is by prioritizing how it is used. Since so much of the focus in an early stage startup should be spent validating assumptions, an essential task is to prioritize the assumptions that need to be validated. While more information about your market is always helpful, certain market assumptions probably aren’t that critical to your success. As with any data, “actionable” is.. |
