Apply proven startup methodologies to your idea or working prototype through five interactive sessions, and finish with concrete evidence, usable project artifacts and a real market action.
Answer a few questions. See the practicum recommended for your project. No payment required.
Self-paced · Five 60–90 minute working sessions · Your startup is the case
Use Customer Development, Lean Startup, Jobs to Be Done, assumption mapping, experiment design and product discovery on your project, not in an abstract case study.
Every question, exercise and artifact starts from your stage, market, current evidence and next decision.
Finish each session with a decision, usable artifact or required real-world action, not another lesson marked complete.
Learn only what you need. Apply it immediately. Keep the result.
You can ask ChatGPT for an ICP, download interview questions, read Lean Startup and generate a PRD in minutes.
But those pieces do not automatically tell you:
The practicum does not sell you more startup information. It guides you through applying the right tools to one real project, and finishing the work.
Think about what someone outside your team could actually try right now. Choose the closest answer.
Proof means something that happened outside your own head.
Pick the one that would unblock you the most.
Be honest here. This is what your plan is built to work around.
Your plan is built so this spend is not wasted.
Each session takes about 60 to 90 minutes.
The last session ends outside the interface, with a real response from the market.
You have a plausible solution direction, but the strongest current risk is whether a reachable customer experiences the problem with enough urgency to change behaviour.
Test before your next commitment: problem importance and first segment.
What your plan focuses on
Five 60–90 minute sessions · Recommended pace: about two weeks
This is a working recommendation based on your answers, not a prediction of startup success.
Begin with the decision your project needs, not a chapter of generic theory.
Get a concise explanation of the framework, when it is useful and the mistakes to avoid.
Apply the method to your customers, evidence, product and constraints.
Separate facts from assumptions, identify contradictions and strengthen weak reasoning.
Save a decision, artifact or market action that becomes the input to the next session.
Self-paced does not mean open-ended. Every session has a definition of done.
Choose early customers, investigate real behaviour and discover how the problem is handled today.
Turn assumptions into hypotheses, design tests and update the project from evidence.
Understand the progress a customer seeks, the forces behind switching and the context of action.
Ask about behaviour and commitments instead of collecting compliments about the idea.
Identify what is both important and insufficiently proven, then test it first.
Connect the product to a clear customer outcome and create a first step worth responding to.
Define the action, sample, signal and threshold before the test begins.
Turn evidence into first-version scope and requirements suitable for development or contractor estimation.
These methodologies improve the structure and quality of validation work. They do not guarantee startup success.
Required market action: Problem interviews, concept test or another external evidence exercise.
The practicum guarantees the work, structure and stated artifacts when the required exercises are completed. It cannot guarantee an independent customer's response or purchase.
Explains the methodology.
You still have to choose the right tool, adapt it and make yourself complete the work.
Helps brainstorm, explain a framework or draft an artifact.
You still design the sequence, judge your own evidence and decide when the work is complete.
Can analyse the project and recommend what to do.
Expensive, and the reasoning skill may remain with the consultant.
Guides you through applying the methods yourself, in the right sequence, on your project.
You leave with project progress and a process you can repeat.
You should not pay for theory you can learn for free. The value is in a well-designed practice of applying it to the project you are already building.
I have worked with technology products and ventures since 2008. The same pattern appears again and again: smart founders know they should validate, but development feels more concrete, research produces mixed answers, and uncomfortable market work is easy to postpone.
AI has made information, drafts and analysis dramatically faster. That is valuable. But knowing the method and completing the method are different things.
I built these practicums to make validation structured, applied and finishable. You work on your own project, use established methodologies, produce a result at every step and take at least one assumption outside the interface to the market.
The purpose is not to judge your idea or do the thinking for you. It is to help you make the next expensive decision with better evidence, and learn a process you can use again.
Artem “Tom” Dalevich
Founder, God of Startups · Product & Venture Strategist
Founder experience supports the relevance of the practicum design. It does not guarantee an individual participant's result.
Preview the methodology, the exercise, the tool and the final artifact of the first session.
See a finished segment profile, evidence summary, offer, PRD or experiment plan.
The complete five-session practicum is available. Participant completion patterns and outcome benchmarks are still being validated, so we publish none of them yet.
Real completion rates, launched market actions and named case studies replace these cards as soon as founding participants finish.
It is an educational programme, but not a passive content course. Each session introduces only the methodology needed for the current decision, then guides you through applying it to your own startup. You finish with project results, not completed videos.
You can use ChatGPT to explain a framework, brainstorm options or help draft an artifact. The practicum provides the methodology selection, sequence, interactive exercises, completion criteria and full path from your current uncertainty to a real market action.
No. The practicum applies widely used approaches such as Customer Development, Lean Startup, Jobs to Be Done, Mom Test principles, assumption mapping, experiment design and product discovery. The value is in selecting, sequencing and applying them to your project.
If a real potential customer cannot experience the core promised outcome today, start with the idea practicum. If the outcome already works, even with some manual delivery, start with the prototype practicum. The questions in this deck recommend the route and explain why.
A decision, usable artifact or required market action. Depending on the route, this includes a chosen segment, evidence summary, value proposition, PRD, offer, experiment plan or live market test.
No. It means the important assumptions have been tested well enough to make the next decision with better evidence. The result can be Build, Revise or Gather More Evidence.
The practicum helps you diagnose whether the issue may be the segment, prospect quality, channel, message, offer, trust, sample size or weak demand. You finish with an interpretation and next test rather than treating silence as a simple verdict.
Each of the five sessions requires approximately 60–90 focused minutes. You can complete them over five days, a weekend plus follow-up, or approximately two weeks. Waiting for market responses can extend the calendar.
Recommended practicum
Idea Validation Practicum
Test before your next commitment: problem importance and first segment.
Five 60–90 minute sessions · Recommended pace: about two weeks
Your answers already shaped the starting brief, so the first session begins from your project instead of a blank page.
Create a free account to save your answers and see the full plan. No card required.
No card · No subscription · Your project remains yours
Complete the practicum before the next build sprint, contractor invoice, ad campaign or investor conversation, not after it produces the wrong result.