# Weekly test

URL: /business/weekly-test · Id: `page:business/weekly-test`

> The one test a Startup runs every week on its weakest belief.

The weekly test is the loop a [Startup](/business/nouns/startup) runs from its first day. Each week it ranks the five slots of the [Founding Hypothesis](/business/founding-hypothesis), runs one [Experiment](/business/nouns/experiment) on the weakest, and ends in one [Decision](/business/nouns/decision).

## First, rank the slots
Each slot scores (1 − grade) × impact. The grade comes from the slot's strongest outside [Evidence](/business/nouns/evidence). Impact is how far a wrong answer on that slot moves the Startup from its [Minimum Success Criteria](/business/nouns/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](/business/test-ladder) that can grade it. Nobody chooses what to work on, and no planning meeting is needed.

| Slot | Default test |
| --- | --- |
| customer | an [ICP](/business/nouns/icp) selector that returns real [Prospects](/business/nouns/prospect), then 15 [Interviews](/business/nouns/interview) |
| problem | Interviews about the last time the [Problem](/business/nouns/problem) hit, matched against the want ledger |
| approach | a smoke page for the top approach against the backup |
| switch | a [reserve-first](/business/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](/workflows/processes/office-hours) still writes one Decision for the week.

The Experiment's primary [Metric](/business/nouns/metric) is the week's one Metric that matters. The [Role](/business/nouns/role) that owns it leads the week. From [Live](/business/lifecycle/states/live), up to three Experiments run, one per independent path.

## Last, one Decision
Graded Evidence lands on the slots. [Office hours](/workflows/processes/office-hours) reads the brief: the diff of the Founding Hypothesis since the last Decision, and the [Readouts](/business/nouns/readout) behind it.

Office hours writes one Decision: persevere, or pivot on a named slot. A pivot is a [Change](/business/nouns/change) to the sentence, and the next ranking starts from the new version.

## Next
The [test ladder](/business/test-ladder) lists every rung the week can run, cheapest first.