Chapter 11. Box 7: What’s the Most Important Thing We Need to Learn First?
Figure 11-1. Box 7 of the Lean UX Canvas: Learning
Once you’ve prioritized your hypotheses and identified which hypotheses you’re going to test, the next step in the process is highlighting the major risks in each hypothesis. To do this, we ask the first of the two key Lean UX questions: What’s the most important thing we need to learn first about this hypothesis?
When we ask about learning, we’re really having a conversation about risk. We want to uncover all the things that might break our hypothesis. If you’re doing this with a cross-functional team, as we’ve advised throughout the book, you’re going to get at least as many answers to this question as there are disciplines in the room. The software engineers will discuss the complexities of developing the feature. The designers will bring up workflow issues and usability concerns. Product managers will challenge whether it will deliver the business benefits we anticipate. All of these risks are valid, but the ones we want to focus on now are the ones that will render the hypothesis invalid and allow us to move on quickly if we’re wrong.
In the early stages of the hypothesis’s life cycle, the biggest risk is usually related to the value of the solution. Do people need a solution? Will they look for it? Will they try it? Will they use it? Will they find ...
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