Coaching practices for How to Test Assumptions

Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For How to Test Assumptions, these are the strongest matches in the current practice library.

Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?

• My conclusion only makes sense because of a bunch of things I’m silently taking for granted about people and how the world works
• I can name the deep fear that keeps me stuck
• In my head the things I’m sure of and the things I’m just guessing at all run together as one blur, so I end up treating my assumptions like hard limits
• My whole plan quietly rests on a handful of things I’ve just taken for granted
• My conclusion feels airtight and yet something nags at me, and I think it’s that the whole thing only holds if a couple of unspoken things are true

Practices that may help

1. Surface and examine the assumptions you are making
   Name the assumptions filling the gap between the data you selected and the interpretation you reached.
   The Ladder of Inference
2. Test the big assumption behind your immunity
   Design a small experiment to check whether the assumption keeping you stuck is actually true.
   Kegan’s Subject-Object Theory, Made Practical
3. Separate facts from assumptions explicitly
   Sort what you actually know from what you’re assuming, in two visible columns.
   First-Principles Thinking, Made Usable
4. Map and stress-test your key assumptions
   Before executing, list the assumptions the plan depends on — then ask which ones would kill it if wrong.
   Red Teaming: Stress-Testing Plans Before They Fail
5. Surface and test underlying assumptions
   Identify the implicit assumptions that your reasoning depends on and test whether they hold.
   Socratic Questioning
6. Name the assumptions that must hold for the plan to work
   Every plan rests on assumptions — list them and ask how likely each one is.
   Margin of Safety
7. Use Socratic questioning to test each belief
   Interrogate every claim with “how do I know this is true?” until only bedrock remains.
   First-Principles Thinking, Made Usable
8. Write the hypothesis before you act
   State what you expect the experiment to reveal before it begins.
   Tiny Experiments: Testing Change Without Committing to It
9. Designing the Experiment
   Plan a real-world activity that will generate clear evidence for or against the belief.
   Behavioral Experiments: Testing Beliefs in the Real World
10. Survey Experiments: Testing Beliefs by Asking Others
    Test social predictions by asking a small sample of others what they actually think — instead of assuming.
    Behavioral Experiments: Testing Beliefs in the Real World

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