New
Crushing It!
How Great Entrepreneurs Build Their Business and Brand in the Age of Social Media
2018
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Pages
375
Published
2019
Business Ideas
✨ New
Testing Business Ideas
A Field Guide to Rapid Experimentation
Run structured experiments to validate your business ideas before you waste months building something nobody wants.
Most business ideas fail not because of poor execution, but because they were never properly tested. Testing Business Ideas by David J. Bland and Alexander Osterwalder gives entrepreneurs and innovation teams a practical field guide to designing and running rapid experiments. Drawing on the Business Model Canvas framework, it provides 44 hands-on testing techniques you can apply immediately to reduce risk, cut wasted effort, and make better decisions with real evidence.
About this book
Every new business idea carries assumptions. Assumptions about customers, about demand, about pricing, about channels. When those assumptions go untested, teams spend months building products that miss the mark entirely. Testing Business Ideas gives you a systematic way to surface those assumptions early and put them to the test before the cost of being wrong becomes catastrophic.
David J. Bland and Alexander Osterwalder, co-creator of the Business Model Canvas, build on the proven Strategyzer approach to show you exactly how to design experiments that generate real evidence. This is not a book about gut instinct or inspirational frameworks. It is a step-by-step field guide oriented around one practical question: how do you know your idea will work?
The book introduces a structured experimentation process, from identifying your riskiest assumptions to selecting the right test for your context to interpreting the data you collect. Forty-four experiment types are documented with clear descriptions, what they cost, how fast they run, and what evidence they produce. You can pick the test that fits your timeline and budget, run it, and make a go or no-go decision grounded in data rather than hope.
Visual, practical, and built for cross-functional teams, the book is organized so that designers, product managers, founders, and corporate innovators can all use it without extensive background in lean startup methodology. Each experiment is laid out consistently, so you can scan, choose, and execute without decoding dense theory.
- 44 documented experiment types covering discovery, validation, and evaluation phases
- A clear framework for mapping assumptions to the right test
- Guidance on interpreting weak, moderate, and strong evidence
- Visual layouts designed for team workshops and sprint planning
- Coverage of both early-stage startups and corporate innovation contexts
If you have a business idea you believe in, this book gives you the tools to find out whether that belief is justified, and to pivot or proceed with confidence.
🎯 What you'll learn
- Identify the riskiest assumptions hiding inside any business model before they become expensive mistakes
- Select the right experiment from 44 documented techniques based on your time, budget, and learning goal
- Design an experiment with a clear hypothesis, a measurable signal, and a defined decision threshold
- Run discovery, validation, and evaluation tests at each stage of a new venture or product initiative
- Interpret experiment results and decide with confidence whether to persevere, pivot, or stop
- Facilitate assumption-mapping and experiment-design sessions with a cross-functional team
- Build a portfolio of small, cheap tests that progressively reduce the risk of a large commitment
👤 Who is this book for?
- Founders and entrepreneurs who want to validate a new business concept before committing significant time or capital
- Product managers responsible for new product bets inside established companies who need a repeatable testing process
- Innovation leads and intrapreneurs running corporate venture or incubator programs where structured evidence matters
- Startup coaches and accelerator mentors looking for a shared vocabulary and toolset to bring to client teams
- Designers and strategists already familiar with the Business Model Canvas who want to move from mapping to testing
Table of contents
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01
Why Ideas Fail
Examines the root cause of most business failures: untested assumptions baked into the original idea. You learn to see a business model as a collection of hypotheses rather than a plan.
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02
The Experimentation Mindset
Introduces the shift from opinion-driven decisions to evidence-driven ones. You explore what it means to treat your business idea as a set of experiments rather than a roadmap to execute.
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03
Mapping Your Assumptions
Walks through the process of extracting and prioritizing assumptions from a business model. You practice identifying which assumptions are riskiest and deserve to be tested first.
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04
Designing Experiments
Covers the structure of a well-formed experiment: hypothesis, test method, measurable signal, and decision criterion. You learn to write experiment cards that your team can act on immediately.
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05
Discovery Experiments
Documents the techniques used to explore whether a problem exists and whether customers care. You work through methods such as customer interviews, observation, and exploratory surveys.
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06
Validation Experiments
Presents tests that confirm whether customers will actually act on a perceived need. You learn to run landing pages, fake doors, and concierge tests to collect behavioral evidence.
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07
Evaluation Experiments
Covers later-stage tests that measure willingness to pay, retention, and scalability. You apply techniques like pre-sales, pilots, and life-size prototypes to stress-test your model.
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08
Choosing the Right Experiment
Provides a decision framework for matching your context, budget, and risk level to the right test. You practice selecting and sequencing experiments across a full business model.
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09
Interpreting Evidence and Deciding
Explains how to read weak, moderate, and strong signals from experiment results. You build the habit of making explicit go, pivot, or stop decisions based on what the data actually shows.
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10
Building an Experimentation Culture
Addresses how to embed continuous testing inside a team or organization. You learn the structures, rituals, and leadership behaviors that make experimentation a repeatable practice rather than a one-off exercise.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need to have read The Business Model Canvas or other Strategyzer books first?
No prior knowledge of Strategyzer tools is required. The book is self-contained and introduces any relevant framework concepts as it goes. Familiarity with the Business Model Canvas will add context, but it is not a prerequisite.
Is this book aimed at startups, or is it also relevant for innovation teams inside large companies?
Both. The authors explicitly address startup founders and corporate innovators throughout. The experiment types and decision frameworks apply equally to a new venture and to an internal product bet inside an established organization.
How practical is this book? Is it mostly theory or can I apply it right away?
It is primarily a practical field guide. Each of the 44 experiment types is documented with a consistent layout covering what the test costs, how long it takes, and what evidence it produces, so you can select and run a test without working through dense theory first.
Does the book include templates or worksheets?
Yes. The book contains visual templates, experiment cards, and worksheets designed for team use. Some of these are also available through the Strategyzer platform, though specific online access details are best confirmed with the publisher.
What level of experience do I need to get value from this book?
The book is accessible to anyone from first-time founders to experienced product leaders. If you can describe a business idea, you have enough context to start applying the frameworks immediately.
Is the content still current given the book was published in 2019?
The core experimentation principles and techniques are not time-sensitive. The fundamental logic of hypothesis-driven testing and assumption mapping remains directly applicable to current startup and product development practice.
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