Day 1 is all about understanding the problem.

The goal for Day 1 is to fill out the workbook, arrange for at least three interviews, and go over any questions with your BMNT guide. We selected a problem that should resonate with you.

The problem statement is:
"Job seekers need a way to maintain confidence and enthusiasm in order to find, pursue, and lock in great opportunities."

This is your starting point. We expect this will change significantly as you proceed through the week. The problem statement is also in the Lessons Learned Brief below

Day 2 is all about learning more about the problem.

You’ll be provided a one-page PDF called “Talking to Humans.” It outlines some best practices for interviews. Really, though, the most important tips can be boiled down to one tip: be curious. Specifically, that means asking open-ended questions. Good interviews require some preparation. Come up with your questions ahead of time, focusing on recent, concrete behavior. Resist the temptation to ask people about hypothetical future scenarios. For example:

“Do you think you would...” is bad.
“When was the last time you…” is good.

Thinking about the problem as you interpret it, come up with your list of questions. Four or five is fine, especially if you ask "why?" after each question. That simple follow-up will help you dig into another person’s world and learn more about their experience. Take notes in whatever form makes you most comfortable (e.g. a notebook, a Word document, a GDoc). Once you’ve completed your interviews, use Slide 4 (Beneficiary Discovery) to capture your top insights and favorite quote. Then revisit the problem statement and ask “Does this still make sense?” If not, change it to better reflect your understanding of the actual problem. When it’s good enough, update Slide 3 with the latest version.

Your final task for today is to pick a target. That means choosing the most compelling or interesting aspect of the problem as you currently understand it. This will not be easy, and don’t worry about “getting it right.” Remember you are walking through the process in a very rapid manner. We don’t expect you to nail it on the first try! Once you select a target, add it to Slide 5 (Picking a Target) and talk it over with your BMNT guide. You aren’t locked into this choice, so if you change your mind at any point feel free to go back.

Day 3 is all about exploring possible solutions.

We’re trying to better understand the dimensions of the problem by looking at various tools. It’s a simple but powerful way to get creative about solving the target you picked yesterday. The way this process works best is by visiting websites of companies and watching demo videos, downloading their apps, or going through their sign-up process to check out cool features and ideas.

The tracker provided below will help you catalog your insights. It already includes a few example companies, but you will need to branch out and find your own. We always recommend the website Product Hunt as a good starting point, and Google works great if you already have some good keywords. As you fill out the tracker, note the most compelling features that jump out at you. Put these in Slide 6 (Beg Borrow Steal) and include a screenshot or other visual from your top choice.

Day 4 is all about preparing to learn.

The important thing to remember today is that you are trying to find the quickest, cheapest, easiest, lowest-risk way to learn. This is the hardest part, and we expect you will also struggle to come up with something. That means don’t worry if this feels unnatural. Here’s a video that might help explain the difference between an experiment and a prototype: The Founder. We hope you can see the beauty of the McDonald’s brothers experiment. They didn’t need to build a kitchen when they could make a “real enough” version of one! Their goal was to test out some hypotheses about a kitchen layout as quickly as possible. It turned out that a tennis court and some chalk would do the trick. Take that same level of frugal creativity to your idea.

Think about the problem, what you’ve learned so far, the target you picked, and all the interesting solutions you explored. Let it marinate for a few minutes and then complete the Experiment Design Workbook. With your test selected, it’s time to start sketching out some ideas. Don’t censor yourself. Your first five ideas will be bad! Keep going and eventually some interesting concepts will pop out. Choose the one you like the most (or just the one that embarrasses you the least). Remember that you can always discuss this with your BMNT guide. Don’t get stuck!

The next step is to construct a simple plan to execute the test. Don’t over-think this part. Just walk through a single test step-by-step, as if you were writing an instruction manual for a stranger who needed to run the test for you.

What are you hoping to learn?
Where would the test be?
When would you do it?
Who are the subjects?
How are you recording the results?

The final step is updating your Lessons Learned Brief. Put up your critical hypothesis on Slide 7, a picture of your least embarrassing sketch on Slide 8, and answer the questions on Slide 9. The reason why you didn’t do this earlier today is that you probably started and restarted (and restarted?) your MVP. That’s totally normal. There’s no reason to add it to the brief until you’ve finished that loop.