General / First Principles
A starting framework for any product. The fundamental beliefs worth testing regardless of industry.
Not every product fits neatly into a category. If you're building something new, or if none of the other templates quite match, start here. These are the fundamental beliefs that every product team should test, regardless of industry or stage.
This template captures five beliefs about problem validation, value clarity, feature prioritisation, market positioning, and the real risk every product faces. They're deliberately broad — the kind of strategic questions that apply whether you're building enterprise software or a consumer app.
The themes focus on the two things that matter most when you're finding your footing: validating that the problem you're solving is real and urgent, and ensuring your core value is obvious and articulable.
Beliefs (5)
We are solving a problem that people actively try to solve today, using worse alternatives.
The strongest product-market fit exists where people are already spending time and money on inferior solutions. If nobody is trying to solve this problem today, demand may not exist.
Our users can describe the value we provide in one sentence.
If users can't articulate why they use your product, they can't recommend it. Word-of-mouth requires a transferable message.
The feature our users love most is not the feature we think is most important.
Product teams consistently overvalue what they've recently built and undervalue the boring feature that users quietly depend on every day.
We are competing for a budget that already exists, not trying to create a new budget.
Products that replace existing spend convert faster than products that require new budget approval. "This replaces X" is an easier sale than "this is a new category."
Our biggest risk is not competition — it's indifference.
Most products don't die because a competitor kills them. They die because not enough people care. The threat isn't someone building something better. It's nobody noticing you exist.
Themes (2)
Problem validation
Continuously validate that the problem you're solving is real, urgent, and being actively solved with worse alternatives.
Users switch from a named alternative, free-to-paid conversion cites replacement of existing tool.
Users sign up out of curiosity but don't replace anything, suggesting the problem isn't painful enough.
Core value clarity
Ensure the product's core value is obvious and articulable within one session.
NPS verbatims consistently describe the same core value, referral rate increases.
Users describe the product differently from each other and from how you describe it.