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Minimum Testable Iteration Decision Tree

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About This MicroSim

A minimum testable iteration is the smallest version of an offer that can get a real yes-or-no answer from a real customer. Three principles cut an idea down to that size: service before product, manual before automated, and pre-selling before building. This MicroSim asks you to judge whether each one applies to a specific venture.

The tree has three yes/no decision diamonds, one per principle. At each diamond you choose between two answers, and each answer comes with its reasoning:

  • One answer holds. Its reasoning fits the venture, such as "Jordan can groom one dog in a customer's driveway this week." The Yes branch turns green, the design note for that principle fills in beneath the diamond, and the next diamond opens.
  • The other is a common founder objection, such as "Mobile grooming can't start until the van is bought and fitted out." The No branch turns amber and shows a Reconsider note. The feedback explains why the objection doesn't hold for this venture, and you decide again.

After the third diamond, the card shows the combined design. For Jordan it is a manually booked, pre-paid, single driveway grooming session, with no van, no app and no inventory. The tree keeps the whole path visible, including every Reconsider branch you took, so each part of the design can be traced back to the judgment that produced it.

The scenario selector swaps in Priya's meal-prep subscription, which runs the same three decisions and ends with a single pre-paid meal delivered to one household this week. The Yes and No answers switch positions from one diamond to the next, so read the reasoning on both before you choose.

On a phone-width screen the tree becomes a compact vertical trail of rows above the question card.

How to Use

  1. Read the idea in the How to Judge panel and the question on the card.
  2. Click the answer below the drawing area whose reasoning holds for the founder's idea.
  3. If the feedback turns amber, read why the judgment doesn't hold, then choose again.
  4. When a judgment holds, read the design note it adds to the tree, then judge the next diamond.
  5. After all three diamonds, compare the combined design on the card with the three design notes in the tree.
  6. Use the scenario selector to switch between Jordan's grooming van and Priya's meal-prep subscription. Click Reset to return to the first diamond.

The status line next to the selector shows which decision you are on and how many times you have had to reconsider since the last reset.

Iframe Embed Code

You can add this MicroSim to any web page by adding this to your HTML:

<iframe src="https://dmccreary.github.io/eight-hour-entrepreneur/sims/minimum-testable-iteration-decision-tree/main.html"
        height="562px"
        width="100%"
        scrolling="no"></iframe>

Lesson Plan

Audience

Adult early-stage entrepreneurs and aspiring founders in a live virtual cohort.

Learning Objective

Given a venture scenario, learners evaluate which lean-test principles (service before product, manual before automated, pre-selling before building) apply, and justify a resulting minimum testable iteration design.

Bloom Level: Evaluate (L5). Bloom Verb: justify.

Duration

15 minutes

Prerequisites

  • Chapter 6 reading on the minimum viable offer
  • Chapter 10 reading through "Three Rules for a Lean Test"

Activities

  1. Solo run on Jordan (4 min): Each participant works through Jordan's three diamonds and notes how many times they had to reconsider.
  2. Name the objection (4 min): As a group, look at each No answer ("the van comes first," "appointments will get lost without an app," "it isn't fair to ask for money yet"). Discuss why each sounds responsible and why it still delays the one question that matters: will a real customer pay for this now?
  3. Priya in pairs (3 min): Pairs switch to Priya's scenario. Before clicking, each partner predicts her final design in one sentence, then compares it with the card.
  4. Your own venture (4 min): Each participant answers the three questions for their own idea, writes one design note per principle, and combines them into a one-sentence minimum testable iteration. A partner challenges any part that still needs something built, bought or automated first.

Assessment

  • Can the participant explain why "the van has to come first" does not hold as a reason to skip a service-first test?
  • Given a new venture, can the participant write a three-part minimum testable iteration and justify each part with the principle behind it?
  • Can the participant explain why a deposit is stronger evidence than a free trial or a stated interest?

References

  1. Lean startup - Wikipedia - The build-measure-learn approach that lean validation and the minimum testable iteration come from.
  2. Minimum viable product - Wikipedia - The smallest version of a product that can test a hypothesis, including concierge and manual variants that deliver the service by hand.
  3. Pre-order - Wikipedia - Taking orders, and often payment, before an item is available, the mechanism behind pre-selling before building.
  4. Customer development - Wikipedia - Steve Blank's method of testing business hypotheses with real customers before scaling.
  5. The Lean Startup by Eric Ries (2011) - The book that popularized the minimum viable product and the practice of testing an idea with the smallest possible experiment.