The Problem Before the Product
Anyone with an idea they have not tested, and anyone running a business they inherited that has never been checked against what customers actually want.
What you will be able to do
- Run a customer conversation that produces evidence rather than encouragement.
- Separate what people say they would do from what they have already done.
- Size a problem well enough to decide whether it is worth solving.
- Write a go/no-go recommendation you would defend to someone spending their own money.
How this is assessed
Validated problem file: twelve conversations and a go/no-go callSubmit a document or folder containing your twelve conversation logs, your bottom-up size estimate with the arithmetic visible, and a one-page recommendation. A practitioner reads it against the rubric below and returns a written mark. If it does not pass, you get the reasons and one resubmission. Record conversations only with the other person's consent, anonymise anyone who asks for it, and say in the log that you have.
| Grade | What earns it |
|---|---|
| Pass | Twelve genuine conversations logged with evidence of past behaviour rather than stated intentions, and a bottom-up estimate whose arithmetic can be followed. |
| Merit | Evidence and interpretation stay visibly separate, and disconfirming quotes are included and engaged with rather than dropped. |
| Distinction | A recommendation another person could act on, including a precise statement of what would have made it wrong and whether you went looking for it. |
Before you submit
- Twelve conversations are logged with date, who the person was, and what they had already tried.
- Quotes are verbatim, not summarised, and at least four people were strangers to you.
- Evidence and your interpretation are in separate columns and never mixed.
- The size estimate is built from the bottom with an assumption written beside every number.
- The recommendation ends in go, no-go or a named pivot — not in "more research needed".
- For merit: quotes that disagree with you are included rather than dropped.
- For distinction: the note states what evidence would have made the answer wrong.
Handing it in
Marked by a founder, product manager, researcher or consultant who has run customer discovery on a decision that had real money behind it. You will need an account to submit, so that the mark has somewhere to land. Sign in or create one. The modules are open either way.
Modules
6 modules, self-paced. Nothing is timed and nothing is scored.
- 1Why ideas fail before they are builtThe problem is the unit of work, not the product.
- 2The conversation that gets the truthAsk about the past. Never ask about the future.
- 3Finding twelve peopleRecruiting with no network and no budget.
- 4Reading the evidenceWhat counts, what is politeness, and what is your own hope.
- 5Sizing without a market reportBottom-up estimation you can show the working for.
- 6The go/no-go noteA recommendation that states its own uncertainty.
This course stacks
Finds a problem worth solving, prices the answer from a floor they can defend, and sets the criteria for stopping before they are too attached to apply them.
A credential is issued when all of its artifacts have passed. It records the courses, the bands and the dates, nothing else, and no score.