Weekly test
The one test a Startup runs every week on its weakest belief.
The weekly test is the loop a Startup runs from its first day. Each week it ranks the five slots of the Founding Hypothesis, runs one Experiment on the weakest, and ends in one Decision.
First, rank the slots
Each slot scores (1 − grade) × impact. The grade comes from the slot's strongest outside Evidence. Impact is how far a wrong answer on that slot moves the Startup from its Minimum Success Criteria.
| Grade | Weight |
|---|---|
| Behavior | 1 |
| Commitment | 0.5 |
| Opinion | 0 |
| no outside Evidence | 0 |
The highest score is the week's slot. Ties go to customer, then problem: a Startup with no buyer has nothing else to test.
Then, one Experiment
The week's slot picks its Experiment from a fixed table, on the cheapest rung of the test ladder that can grade it. Nobody chooses what to work on, and no planning meeting is needed.
| Slot | Default test |
|---|---|
| customer | an ICP selector that returns real Prospects, then 15 Interviews |
| problem | Interviews about the last time the Problem hit, matched against the want ledger |
| approach | a smoke page for the top approach against the backup |
| switch | a reserve-first deposit, priced against what the ICP pays today |
| differentiation | a fake door per axis, read on the same traffic |
The week is the longest a test runs, not the shortest. A test closes the day it crosses its pass or kill line, and the next-ranked slot starts at once. Office hours still writes one Decision for the week.
The Experiment's primary Metric is the week's one Metric that matters. The Role that owns it leads the week. From Live, up to three Experiments run, one per independent path.
Last, one Decision
Graded Evidence lands on the slots. Office hours reads the brief: the diff of the Founding Hypothesis since the last Decision, and the Readouts behind it.
Office hours writes one Decision: persevere, or pivot on a named slot. A pivot is a Change to the sentence, and the next ranking starts from the new version.
Next
The test ladder lists every rung the week can run, cheapest first.