Project Risk Mitigation Done Right

Photo by Guille Álvarez on Unsplash

Last week, I explained how assuming to know nothing is the best way to kick off new important projects. Some people asked me how this step actually works.

The process begins with the definition of assumptions, with the question: “In this project, what do we know for sure?” This leads to a list like this:

• We definitely know our potential customers
• We know perfectly what they want
• We know we can build the product
• They want to pay for the product

Since we want to assume we know nothing, we turn the assumptions into questions:

• Do we really know our potential customers?
• Will these potential customers really want it?
• Can we really build it?
• Can we earn more money from it than it will cost us to build?

Now you ask everyone around the following question:
What is the fastest and cheapest way to answer these questions?

This is a huge change compared to the old way of starting new projects or building new products or services — faster and less risky.