Discovery-Driven Planning
Also known as: DDP · Reverse Income Statement · Assumption Checklist
Plan ventures by the assumptions that must prove true, converting unknowns to knowledge at low cost.
For high-uncertainty initiatives, work backward from required profit (reverse income statement), list the assumptions that must hold, and stage spending to test the riskiest ones at planned checkpoints — preserving the option to redirect or shelve.
Core concepts
Reverse Income StatementAssumption ChecklistCheckpoints / Real Options
Best when
- Launching into the unknown where a conventional plan is false precision
- You want staged off-ramps built in
Watch-outs
- Requires honesty about assumptions and willingness to kill projects