Research Tips

Testing Assumptions

Decisions always involve assumptions. Sometimes these assumptions have been explicitly identified as part of a formal decision making process, but other times they are just implicit in the way people think about a situation. It wouldn’t be feasible to test every assumption associated with every decision, but when a different course of action would be followed depending on whether an assumption is true or false and the difference in the courses of actions is consequential because of the impact on profitability or strategic importance of the decision, then it’s definitely worth testing the assumption. At a minimum, testing an assumption can confirm the decision maker’s intuition so the course of action they were going to pursue can be followed with greater confidence. If an assumption proves to be false, then testing to determine that sooner rather than later can save time and money.