Page 133 - Transforming an Idea Into a Business with Design Thinking

112 ◾ Transforming an Idea Into a Business with Design Thinking

6.1.2 Template (Figure 6.3)

Its best to create this assumptions map as a shared spreadsheet, such as
Google Sheets, which is constantly updated and monitored regularly.

Status
Set the statuses as follows:

◾◾ When a new assumption is created, the status will be New.
◾◾ Members can change the status to In Progress when they are working

on an assumption.
◾◾ When the assumption is proven true, they would change the status to

Validated.
◾◾ When the assumption is proven false, they would change the status to

Disproved.

Assumption Impact Assignee Due Step Comments Status

Figure 6.3 Assumptions template.

6.2 Step 18: Risk Assessment

Every venture has inherent risk. And it is a losing battle to try to eliminate
the risk altogether. The best that could be done is to have a clear under-
standing of the risks, their severity or impact on the business and find out
ways to mitigate those risks.

So the question is how to have a clear understanding of the risk.
Risk in any business is driven from the assumptions that have been
implicitly or explicitly built into various aspects of the business. These
assumptions, if proven wrong, have adverse consequences on the busi-
ness. Having an open and honest assessment of these assumptions will help
you to have a clear idea of the risks associated with your business. As we
have seen throughout the earlier steps, you have been asked to document
all those risks and identify their impact on the business. Now you’ll see a
simple approach to converting those assumptions into a quantified risk.