The art of innovating: how to formulate hypothesis?

In the field of innovation and entrepreneurship, uncertainties are usually much greater than certainties, especially in the initial phases of any project. Want innovate? It is more than likely to feel lost and without knowing very well what the Better way to build that great idea or business that you have in your head. It is, in these scenarios, where to formulate hypothesis is the fundamental guide to address a uncertain path.

In this post I will explain how to raise hypotheses in an effective way for Your research, innovation or entrepreneurship projects. Through this Article, we will address this crucial issue in a simple way. It doesn't matter if you are a student who starts in research or a professional who is looking for Innovate in a project or a new entrepreneur who wants to get his company ahead. This guide It will help you to formulate hypotheses and validate them easily.

What is a hypothesis?

A hypothesis is an idea that arises to explain a certain situation and, Through research and experimentation, data is collected that allow validating it or invalidate it.

Why is it essential to raise hypotheses?

Formulate well the hypotheses is fundamental because it establishes the bases of the research and help transform ideas or opinions into verifiable results and significant.

How to structure a hypothesis?

A good hypothesis is effective when it is considered clear, precisely and it is possible to be Tested. The well -raised hypotheses must be a statement in the that qualitative and quantitative aspects are covered.

As an example, if we are doing an investigation into the taste of hamburgers With cheese in a restaurant we could raise a hypothesis of the style “to 25% Of people under 35, they like cheese in hamburgers ”

How to know if a hypothesis is poorly raised?

In my years of experience in the field of innovation I have raised innumerable hypotheses. I have also had sessions with teams in which, in set, we all propose hypotheses to work on and, one of the errors more common in people who do not have experience this type of process is to formulate the hypotheses through a question or express them through a opinion.

The hypotheses usually start from an opinion and have to answer a question, But they should not be raised as opinions or as questions since, in my experience it is a lot more effective raise statements.

The questions and opinions can be refuted by the teams and, on many occasions, Enter extensive debates, which usually implies inefficiencies in the equipment, some stress and many wasting of time and energy.

Therefore remember, it is much more effective and efficient to affirm something and let the investigation and that the data that illustrate you validating or invalidating the hypothesis.

How to formulate hypotheses in according to the type of project

It doesn't matter if your field of study is psychology, biology or design of products and services. The ability to develop a robust hypothesis is transverse and necessary to advance and improve any type of project. Here are a couple of Examples:

• Hypothesis in the technological field: suppose that You are designing a meditation app. A possible hypothesis It could be: "Integrating nature sounds in the app will increase the Duration of meditation sessions by 20% among users from 18 to 25 years".

• Hypothesis applied to social sciences: if you study the impact of Social networks in emotional well -being, a relevant hypothesis would be: "The daily use of social networks for more than 3 hours is correlated Negatively with personal satisfaction levels in young adults. "

Hypotheses in different phases of research

Depending on the point of the project in which you find the hypotheses (both in their part qualitative as in its quantitative part) may be more concrete or more generic

In the early stages of a very innovative project or on an area that we do not control It can be very useful to raise much more vague hypotheses and genericFor example, if you want to set up a surf school in a place that does not You know, a first hypothesis to raise could be “in the people X people are a passionate of surfing. ”

The example is very dumb, I know, but from this starting point, the investigation It will help to specify the part of "The People. "When advancing with your research, the hypothesis can evolve and reformulate with everything the knowledge acquired until becoming something similar to “in the people x the 40% of people between 18 and 50 years with a healthy lifestyle prefer surfing as Summer sport "

Techniques for validating hypotheses

Once you have your hypothesis raised you will consider you very well but . . . how Can I validate my hypothesis?

The truth is that each project and each research has better and worse ways to extract results. Without going into detail or I will tell you that some techniques that perhaps You can use.

Experimentation and prototyped

Design and execute controlled experiments, small prototypes and expose them to your target audience or to situations described in the hypotheses for Observe the effects of the variables to be validated.

If you want to evaluate, for example, the ergonomics of a physical product could you Learn a little of papiroflexia and create the shape of that product to see how you feel handling and exposing it to family and friends to give you their opinion.

Analysis of data

Use statistical tools such as surveys, market studies, search for Internet data, papers or studies of others to analyze the data collected and Determine whether they support or contradict your hypotheses.

We live in a world in which data access has been democratized. You can search the Web Studies help you evaluate your hypotheses or, even better, create your own studies with Surveys that you can boost on social networks to get information.

Be creative

In the hypothesis validation process, especially in the techniques they have What to do with experimentation, you have to be very creative. Before the shortage of Resources Creativity is always a good ally in order to raise solutions They help you extract relevant information for your research.

Some example of this can be those online stores that "sell" a product that still does not exists. These websites are created, on many occasions, with the sole purpose of collecting data to Validate the hypothesis of whether there is a market for that product or not.

In these cases the effort is small, it is not necessary to invest in creating the product, You simply expose that website to the world and extract results.

I have saved work months and a lot of economic resources for do these types of experiences in many projects. Therefore I invite you to be creative to the time to raise the way of validating hypotheses.

What do you have to take into account when formulating hypothesis

The hypotheses are the starting point of any innovative idea, improvement of a project existing or creation of a new company. As in product design, where every detail counts for the final result, in the investigation each well raised hypothesis closer to valuable discoveries and practical

Always remember that the hypotheses are like the beginning of a trip that will take you from unknown areas to better known land. The hypotheses evolve at the same rate that your knowledge evolves about the area in which you are working and will open new doors that make sense and closing others that may not have it so much in order to build what is in your mind.

Keep an open mind to the results of the investigation, a High capacity to rethink ideas and a methodical approach in your way of addressing The uncertainties of the road and you will see how the results will be given little by little.