SFS_03Startup Foundation System™ 4–6 weeks

Problem & Customer Validation

Ensure the problem is real. Define the Ideal Customer Profile and validate pain points first-hand — not in a deck.

Why it matters

Discovery done wrong validates illusions. We install Mom-Test interview discipline, JTBD canvas, and a falsifiable hypothesis register — the same instruments YC, EF, and Reforge use to kill bad ideas before they kill the company.

Scope covered

Hypothesis register (each falsifiable, with kill criteria)

Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) v1 — firmographic + behavioural

Mom-Test interview script library + structured evidence log

Jobs-to-be-Done (JTBD) canvas per persona

Pain-point intensity × frequency × willingness-to-pay map

Five-Whys root-cause discovery on top 3 pain points

Continuous Discovery Habits (Teresa Torres) — weekly touchpoint cadence

Opportunity Solution Tree — desired outcome → opportunities → solutions → experiments

Fake-door / smoke-test landing pages with conversion instrumentation

Wizard-of-Oz instrumentation — manual back-end with measured front-end demand

How we run it

Our methodology

A senior-led delivery sequence — not a template dump. Each phase is operated with your team, not handed over as a deck.

1
Hypothesis & interview design
Week 1
Codify the problem hypotheses, customer segments and the interview script (Mom-Test discipline).
2
Customer interviews — 30–50
Week 1–3
Run 30–50 problem-discovery interviews across hypothesised segments; capture quotes, pain intensity and frequency.
3
Synthesis & pain ranking
Week 3–4
Synthesise findings; rank pains by intensity × frequency × willingness-to-pay; falsify weak hypotheses.
4
Prototype-led validation
Week 4–5
Use clickable prototypes / concierge MVP to test top-pain solutions with 10–15 buyers.
5
Validated problem brief
Week 5–6
Deliver the validated problem brief: ICP, top-pain, jobs-to-be-done, and the build/buy/kill decision.