Periodic Product Pressure Testing

Idea

Schedule regular adversarial review sessions to challenge assumptions, scope, priorities, and strategy. Inspired by the BMAD Method (pre-mortems, devil’s advocate, investor pitch framing) but applied as an ongoing discipline rather than a one-time planning exercise.

Why

• Easy to accumulate scope without questioning whether each piece earns its place
• Assumptions that were true at project start may not hold as development progresses and market feedback arrives
• Structured pushback surfaces blind spots that day-to-day building misses
• Cheaper to cut or pivot on paper than after implementation

Format

A focused conversation covering one or more areas:

• Pre-mortem: “The product launched and failed. What went wrong?”
• Devil’s advocate: “Why is this the wrong approach?”
• Investor pitch: “Convince me this is worth funding — what’s the weakest part of the pitch?”
• Scope audit: “Which MVP items could be cut without losing the core value proposition?”
• Segment challenge: “Is this the right customer to build for first?”
• Risk inventory: “What are we most uncertain about and what would reduce that uncertainty?”

When

• Before major milestones (first deploy, beta launch, app store push)
• After receiving beta tester feedback (do the assumptions still hold?)
• When scope grows (new work items added to roadmap)
• Quarterly as a general health check

Open Questions

• Should findings be captured in a structured format (dated notes with action items)?
• Should this be a solo exercise or involve Isaac / the broader team?