Day 2 · Map and Validate: a real problem and a build objective
| Runs with | Day 2, after the 30-minute briefing: Part A in the morning (about 115 minutes, ending with one real conversation at lunch), Part B in the afternoon (about 110 minutes), then the 15-minute gate |
|---|---|
| Format | Prompt-based: every step is a prompt you give Claude, followed by a check you do yourself. Every prompt today runs in your Claude Project on Claude.ai |
| You need | Your Claude Project and product/01-route.md from Day 1; web search switched on in Claude.ai; one real person who has the problem, booked for 20 minutes at lunch |
| You leave with | Product Proposition v1 in product/02-proposition.md, one real conversation logged with an honest evidence label, and a build objective sized for Days 3–4 |
| Gate | The Day 2 gate (Part C), closing Map and Validate |
Where you are
Yesterday you saw the route and wrote your idea in one line, marked "assumed, 0 people". Today answers the question: is there a real problem, for whom, and what would they use instead? By the end of the day your one line has become a one-page proposition, tested once against a real person, and a build objective small enough to build on Days 3 and 4.
| Product Book file | What it holds | Used in step |
|---|---|---|
product/01-route.md | Your one-line idea, who you are this week, your working agreement and rules | A1, A2 |
product/02-proposition.md | Today's work: Product Proposition v1, the conversation notes and the build objective | Every step |
The Founders Programme spends two weeks on what you do today. You will cut corners on purpose: one conversation, not ten; one segment, not three. The gate asks for honesty about that, not for more evidence than a day can give.
What you are building
Every prompt fills in part of one page. Keep it in product/02-proposition.md.
| Part | What it says | Built in step |
|---|---|---|
| Working title | A name you can change later | A1 |
| Problem | User, situation, struggle, consequence, evidence | A3 |
| Evidence so far | The conversation as notes, with what they did kept apart from what they said, and a count | A8, B1 |
| For | The first group of users: narrow, reachable, and in a named situation | B2 |
| Today they | The alternatives they use now, including doing nothing, with sources | B3 |
| Our product | The value proposition in five parts | B4 |
| Hypothesis | "We believe [solution] for [user] will [outcome], shown by [metric]." | B4 |
| First value moment | The single moment the user first gets value | B5 |
| What we build first | At most three capabilities in; what is out, and why | B5 |
| Build objective | "By the end of Day 4, a working web app where [user] can [first value moment], with tests passing; on Day 5, one real person reaches it without help." | B6 |
| Biggest open question | What one conversation could not tell you | B7 |
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