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Hypotheses are testable assumptions about your customer personas. They’re the bridge between “who we think our customers are” and “what we learn from talking to them.”

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Creating a hypothesis

  1. Open a project and go to the Hypotheses tab
  2. Click Add Hypothesis
  3. Select the persona this hypothesis is about
  4. Write your hypothesis statement
  5. Choose a type (e.g., pain point, behavior, willingness to pay)
You can also add hypotheses from the persona tearsheet or via the Discovery Journey diagram (Step 2).

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Writing strong hypotheses

A good hypothesis is specific, testable, and falsifiable. Founder Sherpa includes an AI quality checker to help you refine your statements.
“Customers don’t like the current process.”Too vague — which customers? Which process? What does “don’t like” mean?

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AI hypothesis quality check

Click Check with AI on any hypothesis to get:
  • A quality rating
  • Specific improvement suggestions
  • An optional rewrite you can accept with one click
  • Context-aware feedback grounded in your project name and persona

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Hypothesis types

Hypotheses are categorized by type to help you organize your research:
  • Pain point — The customer experiences a specific problem
  • Behavior — The customer behaves in a certain way
  • Willingness to pay — The customer would pay for a solution
  • Workflow — The customer follows a specific process

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Validating hypotheses

As you collect interview evidence, each piece of evidence links back to one or more hypotheses. Over time, you build a body of evidence that either supports or contradicts each hypothesis.

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AI validation on the Hypotheses tab

The Hypotheses tab includes inline checkboxes for selecting hypotheses to validate with AI:
  1. Check one or more hypotheses you want to validate
  2. Click ✦ Validate with AI
  3. Results appear inline below each hypothesis with a verdict, evidence summary, and research gaps
Hypotheses need a minimum amount of linked evidence before validation is enabled — the checkbox is disabled until you have enough.
Your selection persists across filter changes. A pill indicator shows when you have selected hypotheses outside the current filter view.

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Batch analysis on the Insights tab

Use the Insights tab to run AI-powered batch analysis across all evidence, which summarizes the validation status of your hypotheses and generates an audit report.

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Managing hypotheses

  • Edit — Update the hypothesis statement or type at any time
  • Filter — Use the hypothesis filter on the Hypotheses tab to narrow by type or persona
  • Link to evidence — When recording interview evidence, select which hypotheses the evidence relates to