Week 6 · Challenge + Demo Design
What Do You
Actually Know?
I analyzed every assumption audit. Today: what I found, what worked, and then — your partner tells you where you're wrong.
Week 6 · Challenge + Demo Design
I analyzed every assumption audit. Today: what I found, what worked, and then — your partner tells you where you're wrong.
Today's Session
Opening
If you can't see your assumptions, you can't improve anything — not a product, not a class, not your career.
Imagine a professor designs their class. A student falls asleep in the back row.
The professor assumes: "They were up late playing video games. They don't care."
The reality: That student worked a night shift to pay rent and came straight to class.
Same behavior. Completely different problem. And if the professor can't see their own assumption, they can't help that student — or design a class that works for both kinds of students.
This is what the assumption audit was for. Not a homework exercise — a muscle you need for the rest of your professional life. Every time you design for someone, interview a user, pitch to a client, or lead a team — your hidden assumptions are either helping you or sabotaging you.
Today we practice catching them.
From Your Submissions
These students aren't smarter. They pushed past the first answer.
"I think that my solution to push him might be interpretation because that's what I needed to fix a similar issue."
Seeing yourself in the solution you're designing for someone else — and naming it — is hard. This student did it.
"I initially assumed the issue would be forgetting to drink water. However, I learned the real barrier is taste and sensory preference... That shifted my understanding from designing a tracking system to exploring substitution strategies."
Started with one theory, let the evidence change direction. That's the move.
"If tradeoffs-first: a keep/pause/reduce table. If planning-first: a weekly template with fixed commitments mapped and protected blocks."
Didn't just say "I'd change my approach." Built two artifacts. Ready for either answer.
"His family and how he was brought up — wasting time is a no-go. The internal factors must be handled first because the drive to help his family makes it hard to prioritize self-care."
Understood that the problem isn't scheduling — it's identity and cultural values. That changes everything about the solution.
Pattern #1 · From Your Submissions
Quoting what someone said and interpreting what it means are two different things. Most submissions blurred them.
Quick note: several submissions were raw Dojo transcripts — not the extracted deliverable. The assignment asked you to write your assumptions as a structured list. A conversation is not a document. If your audit was a transcript paste, you'll need to extract during the sharpening exercise today.
"He'd rather watch movies than go to the gym."
→ Conclusion: "He needs to stop being lazy."
That's evidence he sometimes chooses rest. "Lazy" is your word, not his. Preference ≠ character flaw.
"He said he doesn't like the taste of plain water and described it as 'bland.' He mentioned liking the taste and fizz of diet soda."
→ Then admitted: "I'm assuming taste alone is the main barrier, but I don't have confirmation that caffeine or sweetness isn't also important."
Quotes what was said. Flags what was guessed. That's the standard.
In industry, a client will rarely correct your story about them.
They just stop returning your calls. Today your partner will tell you.
Pattern #2 · From Your Submissions
"I'd adjust" is not a plan. Name the specific artifact, feature, or question you'd pursue instead.
"If this assumption is wrong, I would need to change my approach and focus on a different issue."
Change to what? Which issue? This doesn't tell you what to do on Wednesday at 2pm.
"If tradeoffs-first is wrong, the artifact changes from a keep/pause/reduce table to a weekly template with fixed commitments mapped first, then protected sleep and interview blocks."
Two artifacts. Two plans. When the assumption breaks, there's already a next move.
Your partner is going to challenge something you assumed. If your only plan is "I'll adjust" — you'll freeze. If you've already thought about specifically what changes, you can pivot in real time.
Professionals don't hope they're right. They prepare for being wrong.
Pattern #3 · From Your Submissions
Projecting your experience onto someone else is the fastest way to build something nobody uses.
"I have no evidence. I just used my experience with the general dislike of apps from the popular opinion online."
"I think that my solution to push him might be interpretation because that's what I needed to fix a similar issue."
These students aren't ahead because they avoided projection.
They're ahead because they named it. You can't fix what you don't see.
If your partner says something that surprises you, pay attention. That surprise is the distance between their reality and your projection.
Preparation · 12 minutes
Write 3 assumptions — specific enough to be wrong. On paper. No screens. No AI.
If you completed the audit — pull your top 3 and rewrite them using what you just saw. If you submitted a transcript — extract your assumptions now. If you didn't submit — build them from what you remember.
For each one:
How It Works · 5 minutes
The goal is not to be right. The goal is to find where you're wrong before you build.
"I assumed your main problem is eating when you're not hungry because of cravings. You told me you eat ahead of your meal prep. But I'm guessing the 'why' — I don't know if it's cravings, boredom, or something else."
"Am I right about cravings, or is something else going on?"
✅ "Yeah, it's mostly cravings." → Assumption holds.
🔄 "It's more that I'm bored when studying." → Close but different trigger. Approach forks.
❌ "Actually I cook too much and feel guilty wasting it." → Completely different problem.
Challenge Round 1 · You Present
Present your assumptions. Your partner responds. Write what changes — right now, not later.
Challenge Round 2 · Switch Roles
Same rules, reversed. Being "nice" by confirming everything helps no one.
Your partner reads their assumptions about your problem. You respond honestly.
As the stakeholder: the most useful thing you can do is be specific about where they're wrong — and why.
Before You Design
Your partner just told you where your assumptions break. Now ask yourself: do you actually understand their world well enough to build something useful?
Your partner's problem lives in a domain — time management, health behavior, motivation, job searching, cultural identity. You're not an expert in it. That's the gap.
The Domain Learning assignment asks you to close that gap — not by becoming an expert, but by building a mental model strong enough to make good design decisions.
The challenge session told you where you're wrong.
Domain learning tells you why — and what to do about it.
On Demo Day, you'll need to show that you understood your partner deeply enough to build something they couldn't have asked for. That requires more than interviewing — it requires developing your own knowledge about their world.
Students who skip domain learning build obvious solutions. Students who do it build solutions that make their partner say: "How did you know that?"
Sprint 2 Demo
You choose the format. Think of it as: a hiring committee asks "Show us how you solved a problem for someone."
Written report. Slide deck. Live demonstration. Interview / podcast style. A combination. It's up to you — as long as you can deliver it in your time slot.
Two groups running simultaneously. 5 pairs per group.
20 minutes per pair:
Your partner validates live: "Did they get it right? What did they understand about me that I didn't expect?"
The strongest demos show where you were wrong and what you did about it.
That's what separates understanding from guessing.
Remaining Time
Use the rest of class to work with your partner. You have real feedback now — translate it.
Demo Design
Design how you'll demonstrate your work. How do you show that you understood someone deeply enough to build something they couldn't have asked for?
Domain Learning Plan
Your partner's problem lives in a domain — time management, health behavior, job search, motivation. What does science say about it? What do experts know that you don't yet?
Weekly Reflection
What changed in your understanding after today's challenge? What are you building differently?