Who This Helps
You're a founder operator. You have a dozen ideas for your next experiment. But you can't test them all. You need a fast, evidence-based way to pick the one that moves the needle most.
This is for you if you've ever spent a week on an experiment that taught you nothing. Or if you've felt stuck between two good options and just picked the louder one.
Mini Case
Meet Zaid. He runs a B2B SaaS startup. He had three possible experiments for the quarter:
- Run a LinkedIn ad campaign targeting a new ICP wedge.
- Build a feature his biggest competitor just launched.
- Interview 10 churned customers to find the real reason they left.
Zaid used the Positioning Grid from the Market Intelligence & Positioning course. He scored each option on three criteria: evidence strength, effort, and potential impact.
The LinkedIn campaign scored 8/10 on impact but needed 40 hours of setup. The feature copy scored 2/10 on evidence (it was just noise from a competitor claim). The customer interviews scored 9/10 on evidence and needed only 10 hours.
Zaid picked the interviews. He found that 70% of churned customers left because of a missing integration, not a missing feature. He fixed that in 2 weeks. Churn dropped by 12% in one month.
Do This Now (5 Steps)
- List your next 3 experiments. Write them down. No filtering yet.
- Define your criteria. Use three: evidence strength, effort, and potential impact. Score each from 1 to 10.
- Score each experiment. Be honest. If you have no evidence for an idea, give it a 1. If you have data from 5 customer calls, give it a 9.
- Pick the highest total. The experiment with the best combo of evidence, low effort, and high impact wins.
- Start today. Block 2 hours this afternoon. Do the first step of that experiment.
Avoid These Traps
- Chasing competitor moves. Just because a competitor launched a feature doesn't mean your customers want it. Check your own evidence first.
- Falling in love with your own idea. You'll naturally score your favorite experiment higher. Ask a teammate to score it blind.
- Overthinking the scores. Use rough numbers. A 7 vs 8 doesn't matter. A 2 vs 9 does.
- Skipping the evidence step. If you have zero data for an experiment, it's a gamble, not a bet.
Your Win by Friday
By Friday, you will have:
- A clear ranking of your next 3 experiments.
- One experiment chosen with evidence, not gut feel.
- The first action step done (a customer call, a data pull, or a quick test).
That's it. One decision. One move. Less noise, more signal.
And hey, you might even have time to grab coffee before your next all-hands.