Assumptions Mapping

Assumptions Mapping Fundamentals - Online Course

  • Identify the risk in an idea using design thinking principles.

  • Extract well formed assumptions that would have to be true for your idea to work.

  • Map the most important assumptions with the least amount of evidence to focus your experimentation.

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What is Assumptions Mapping?

Behind every new business idea hides risky assumptions. If proven false, these important and unproven assumptions can make or break your business. Assumptions Mapping is an interactive technique designed to identify these assumptions as a team to help focus your experimentation. The goal of Assumptions Mapping is to get teams to talk to one another about the overall risk and then go do something about it.

History of Assumptions Mapping

David first learned the 2x2 from working with Jeff Gothelf, Josh Seiden and Giff Constable. The Lean UX book illustrates how to use the 2x2, but teams still struggled with what type of experiment to run. Pulling from design thinking, David added the desirable, viable and feasible themes as different colors. He then iterated on the X and Y axis labels for several years with countless teams, finally iterating to what you see today.

Who uses Assumptions Mapping?

Thousands of people all around the world use Assumptions Mapping. The reason for it being under Creative Commons is to give people the opportunity to use it freely and inspect and adapt on the exercise. It's been used for side projects, startups, startup accelerators, small businesses, large corporations and government agencies. It's even been pulled into Google's Design Sprint Kit. In short, it just works.

Assumptions Mapping PDF

Precoil Assumptions Mapping Worksheet v3.0 - Download PDF- A detailed list of questions to surface the assumptions with your team.

Partner Resource

Precoil Mural Assumptions Mapping Template - Visit Mural.co- A Mural template to use with your distributed team.

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