State Each Hypothesis So It Can Come Out Wrong
Acceptance Hypothesis template and examples
Companion to The Product Manager’s New Job Is Acceptance · Updated 2026-09-30
The chapter “Design Every Test to Have a Chance of Failing” explains the shape.
For [ICP or actor] experiencing [trigger or problem], if [promise or system condition] is true, then under [realistic conditions] we expect to observe [behavior or outcome] without [unacceptable rescue or distortion].
Fill-in
| Part | Your answer |
|---|---|
| ICP or actor | |
| Trigger or problem | |
| Promise or system condition | |
| Realistic conditions | |
| Behavior or outcome, with a threshold | |
| Sample size: how many participants | |
| Refutation rule: the result you will treat as false, written before the test | |
| Rescue or distortion you will not accept | |
| The observation that would prove this wrong |
Weak and testable versions
| Weak | Testable |
|---|---|
| Users will like the new onboarding. | Practice managers at groups of ten to thirty physicians will reach their first completed intake within one working day, with no call to support. |
| The product is easy to use. | Ten intended users, given no instruction, will complete the core task with no more than one navigation hint each. |
| Customers will renew. | Accounts that reached the first useful action in week one will still use it weekly in month four, and at least half will add a second user unprompted. |
Checks
- Does it name an actor, a condition, a behavior, a threshold, a sample size, and a refutation rule?
- Could a result you can imagine make it false? Set the threshold before the test from three questions: what is the smallest result that would change the decision, how far from your expectation would surprise you, and which mistake costs more, keeping a false claim or dropping a true one.
- Have you written the competing explanations before the test?
Download
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