All tools Step 9 of 12
Identify Assumptions
Find the belief that would end the company
Surfaces the assumptions your business rests on and plots them on a Risk × Impact matrix, so you can see which one to go and test first.
Free to start · 30 credits on signup · No credit card · Your idea stays yours
What Identify Assumptions looks like
The tool as it appears inside the ToolSuite, shown here on an example company.
Riskiest Assumptions: ShelfSense
Plotted on a Risk × Impact matrix. Validate the top-right quadrant first.
Shelf-read detection is accurate enough on security-camera footage that store teams trust the task queue instead of re-walking aisles.
Chain IT completes a security review of a read-only, camera-adjacent integration within the 90-day pilot window.
Store teams act on camera-generated restock tasks within 30 minutes once they appear in their existing queue.
- You know things the AI does not — moving an item re-ranks the validation order
- Each hypothesis is written to be testable in a customer interview
Example content, shown on an invented company. Your own analysis uses your idea.
Three things it does
- 01
A Risk × Impact matrix
Every assumption placed by how likely it is to be wrong and how much damage that does. Validate the top-right quadrant first.
- 02
Drag to reprioritise
You know things the AI does not. Move any item and the ordering follows.
- 03
Written as testable hypotheses
Each one stated precisely enough to design an interview question around, and numbered so you can track it.
What it lets you do
- Stop testing the assumption you are most confident about
- Spend finite validation effort where being wrong costs the most
- Hand a co-founder a ranked list instead of a worry
Founders test the assumption they are most confident about, because it is the most comfortable to confirm. The point of naming them is to make that harder.
Where it sits
Each tool uses what the last one established. See all 13 tools in order.
Common questions
What is a leap-of-faith assumption?
A belief the business depends on that has not been verified — that a customer segment will pay, that a channel will reach them, that a behaviour will change. Every startup has several. The work is identifying which one, if wrong, ends the company.
How do I know which assumption to test first?
Test the one that would do the most damage if it were false, not the one you are most confident about. That ranking is the tool’s actual output — the list matters less than the order.
What do I do once I have them?
They become the subject of your customer interviews. The next tool in the sequence drafts interview scripts against these assumptions specifically, so the conversations are aimed at what could break the business.
Find the belief that would end the company
Create a free ToolSuite account and Identify Assumptions is there, along with the other twelve tools.
Create your free accountFree to start · 30 credits on signup · No credit card required