The cost of a bad assumption

Check yourself · 6 questions · pass at 70%

1. 01

   Someone in a meeting states confidently that most users are on mobile. No one has checked analytics. What is this?

   • An assumption presented as a fact
   • A fact, since it comes from an experienced team member
   • A hypothesis, because it's stated numerically
   • A constraint on the design
2. 02

   Why does the same wrong assumption cost different amounts?

   • The bill is set by when you discover it, not how wrong it was
   • Some assumptions are inherently more expensive than others
   • Later-stage teams are more expensive per hour
   • Post-launch fixes require more approvals
3. 03

   Which assumptions should you spend your testing budget on?

   • Low confidence, high consequence
   • High confidence, high consequence
   • Low confidence, low consequence
   • High confidence, low consequence
4. 04

   You're designing a two-sided marketplace. Which is most likely the riskiest assumption?

   • Sellers will list before there are buyers on the platform
   • Sellers prefer a grid layout to a list layout
   • Buyers want to filter by price
   • The checkout should support multiple currencies
5. 05

   What makes a good test of a risky assumption?

   • It's the cheapest thing that could prove the assumption wrong
   • It's the most methodologically rigorous option available
   • It produces statistically significant quantitative data
   • It involves at least ten participants
6. 06

   What's the problem with framing research as 'validation'?

   • It sets the goal as being right, and you will always find evidence for that
   • It's a term stakeholders don't understand
   • It implies quantitative rather than qualitative methods
   • It suggests the research happens too late

Revision · 8 cards

These come back on a schedule, spaced to catch you just before you’d forget.