Hypotheses overview
What hypotheses are, how assumptions become knowledge, and where to manage them on an Innovation Opportunity in SolveNext Lab.
A hypothesis is a statement about your Innovation Opportunity that you want to test, for example "Small retailers will pay a monthly fee for this service." In SolveNext Lab, hypotheses live in the Assumptions vs Knowledge section of each opportunity. They help you separate what you believe from what you have actually learned.
Why it matters
Innovation work is full of untested beliefs. Writing them down, testing them with small bets and recording the result shows you how much of your opportunity rests on evidence. The Assumptions vs Knowledge bar at the top of the opportunity page gives you that picture at a glance.
Key concepts
- Assumption: a hypothesis whose Result is Untested. It appears in the Assumptions table.
- Knowledge: a hypothesis whose Result is True or False. It appears in the Knowledge table.
- Result: you choose Untested, True or False in the hypothesis form. When you save, the app places the hypothesis in the right table automatically. If you set a result back to Untested, it moves back to Assumptions.
- Stage: each new hypothesis is tagged with the opportunity's current Next Cycle stage. You can change it later in the hypothesis form.
- Priority: the order of the hypothesis in its table. Drag a row up or down to change it.
- Small bets: experiments you add inside a hypothesis to test it. Each small bet can record outcomes, an LFI (Learning From Investment), LFI implications and resources.
- Participants: people you add to a hypothesis. They receive an email notification when they are added.
- Assumptions vs Knowledge bar: shows the share of untested (yellow), true (green) and false (red) hypotheses. Click the bar to see the counts.
Where to find it
- In the Leader sidebar, click Innovation Opportunities and click the opportunity's name.
- Find the Assumptions vs Knowledge card below the Next Cycle bar.
- Click the Assumptions vs Knowledge heading to expand the Assumptions and Knowledge tables.
- Click New assumption to add a hypothesis.
- Click a hypothesis's text in either table to open it, edit it, add small bets or manage participants.
- To delete a hypothesis, open the three-dots menu at the end of its row and choose Delete.
Access
Creating hypotheses requires a Pro license. Opening and editing a hypothesis is available to the opportunity's owner and to members of the opportunity's team. If you don't have access, you see an upgrade prompt instead.
