Assumptions Are Beliefs We Treat Like Facts

Everything in our society and economy is based on assumptions that we treat as facts. Over time, one or more of them stops being true. That can be an assumption about your product category, your industry, your vertical, your competitors, your prospects or your own company.

If you can be the company or person who examines those assumptions from time to time and finds one that's no longer true, you can disrupt. Maybe people stopped caring about something. Maybe people stopped using something. Maybe everyone assumes it has to have this many buttons, or work at this speed, when that isn't true.

It's almost always worthwhile, every two or three years, to list as many assumptions as you can about the product, the company, the industry and the vertical, and then do some testing to see if they still hold.

The instant you realize one isn't true, that's a great opportunity, especially if you're the first mover. What assumption has replaced it?