Innovation · Experiments · Component

Test card

One test, written down before it runs: the hypothesis, the method, the budget and time box, and the result that would count as a pass.

The deliverable

What it is

A test card is short on purpose. Filling it in forces the question of what would change the decision, and a test that cannot answer that question is usually not worth running.

Writing it before the test is the point. Hypotheses, methods and thresholds recorded afterwards will be shaped, however honestly, by the result.

One level in

What it is made of

Each element is a constituent part of the component. Follow one to see the attributes it carries.

  1. Hypothesis

    The specific, testable form of the assumption being checked, including the behaviour expected and from whom.

    2 attributes: Hypothesis · Assumption tested

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  2. Method

    How the test will be run — interview, landing page, manual service, prototype or pilot sale — within a fixed budget and time box.

    3 attributes: Test type · Budget · Time box

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  3. Pass threshold

    The result that would count as support for the hypothesis, agreed and dated before any data comes in.

    3 attributes: Threshold · Agreed on · Agreed by

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Fill in the pass threshold first. If the team cannot agree on it, the idea is not yet clear enough to test.

The other components in experiments

Assumption register

Every assumption an idea depends on, grouped by kind and ranked by how much damage it would do if it turned out wrong.

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Learning record

What each test found and what was decided because of it, kept for the failed tests as carefully as for the ones that passed.

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