Four ways to check assumptions using a quiz 

To paraphrase Ice Cube ‘check yourself before you wreck yourself’. Making assumptions puts you in a potentially sticky situation that could get very bad, very quick. Using a quiz to test them can save you a lot of time, money, and stress. 

When we assume, it leads to miscommunication and misunderstanding. We assume people have understood what we want them to do, we assume we have understood what someone wants us to do. We think everything is crystal clear and all will go smoothly. Then when the thing that was supposed to happen, doesn’t happen, it leads to anger and blame.  

In this article we will break down why we assume, which assumptions we should check first and the four ways a quiz can help us elevate our communication and decision making and take our business to new heights, simply by putting our assumptions to bed. 

To assume, makes an ass out of ‘u’ and me 

I remember being told this in school and it’s stuck with me. How convenient that the letters of the word can create such a good little rhyme that absolutely nails its definition! Mind blowing if you ask me! 

Effective communication is one of, if not the most important skill to get you through life. It’s crucial to work, relationships, parenting, going to the shops, walking the dog…literally everything. The biggest improvement we can make to our communication skills is to check our assumptions. One of the main techniques used to do this is asking questions.  

So why do we assume? Without getting too deep into the psychology, it’s all down to our past experiences and the limitations of our frames of reference. We take what others are saying or doing and put it through a whirry brain cog process of reconfiguring it to what’s familiar and comfortable to us or what we want it to mean.  

All of this is natural, so don’t feel bad, but it’s definitely not helpful, especially in business, so do take action. A Specialised Marketing Assessment quiz is just the assumption checking vehicle you need. Read on to find out how a bespoke quiz can help you check and resolve assumptions that are crucial to your business’s success. 

How can a quiz help me check assumptions? 

A quiz provides a systematic approach to testing assumptions. It can be used in any context you can think of. You might want to quiz your employees to check they are on board with the companies’ mission, vision and values, or to effect change if your company is pivoting its operations in some way. Maybe you want to check in with your customer base to see how much they know about your product or service, your philosophy, and initiatives. A quiz is a sure-fire way to find out if your priorities and values are aligned with your target audience’s. 

Entrepreneurs these days are often encouraged and encourage failure. To fail hard and fast is seen as a good thing, a route to succeeding better. I get it, I listen to the ‘How to Fail’ podcast, I’m on board! But some failures can be costly and time consuming. They might not even teach us that valuable a lesson. Many things can go pear shaped in any new or existing venture, getting one thing wrong and learning from it, doesn’t necessarily move us closer to our goals. Resolving the assumptions that can lead to these failures can save a lot of time and money. The cost of a resolution, such as a quiz, is likely to be a lot less than the cost of the failure.  

What assumptions should I test? 

First, you must identify the assumptions you want to test. Look at the critical unknowns, the things that must be true for the business to succeed. For example, the assumption that people will buy a product for the asking price.  

Assumptions can vary in severity, the most severe being ‘is there a need for my product or service?’. This assumption needs to be checked before a new venture even gets off the ground and a quiz is a great way to do that.  

Another pertinent assumption that must be resolved before proceeding with a new venture is whether crucial partnerships are feasible. As an example, designer clothes rental sites such as By Rotation and Hurr have taken off massively in recent years. But for that success to have happened, the founders would first have needed to test the assumptions that people actually want to hire designer clothes off the internet. They would then need to prove the assumption that they can partner with brands to acquire the clothing at wholesale prices. Which fortunately they did, meaning I can now do my weekly food shop in a Dolce & Gabanna dress for the same price as two whole chickens! 

Another variable when it comes to assumptions is the probability of them being true. While it’s tempting to test the most likely assumptions first and get some lovely, cuddly, positive feedback, it’s not the right approach. The priority should be the assumptions that are least likely to be true. This is how you can minimise the time and money spent before you make a key pivot or even decide to abandon your project. 

Four ways to check assumptions 

Now that we’ve covered why we can’t let making assumptions slide and what sort of assumptions we need to resolve most urgently, let’s look at exactly how a quiz can help: 

1. In your questioning you can make statements that show how you feel about something or sets out something you want to happen. You can then ask your quiz takers what they think about it. Their answer will tell you how closely aligned they are with what you want for the business. An example for an internal quiz might be: 

You can also use questions to ask quiz takers directly what their understanding of your products, projects, strategy and/or goals is, such as: 

2. Your quiz gives you the opportunity to provide bespoke feedback to your quiz takers. This can be used to check assumptions by telling a story and putting things in context. You can’t assume others know the history of the thing you’re talking about and that they have the same level of understanding that you do. You can even use the questions to gauge their level of understanding and then provide specific feedback the provides the exact information they need to better understand you 

3. Use your questions to clarify your mission, vision and values and use Likert scale answers (strongly agree, agree, disagree, strongly disagree) to gauge whether or not your priorities and goals are aligned with your audience’s be they customers or employees 

4. Quiz results aren’t just about revealing something to the quiz taker, they are a way of repeating back to them how you have understood what they have told you with their quiz answers. This will help to expose any misinterpretations or assumptions that could cause problems later in your working relationship. Perhaps in your follow up call or email, you can continue to gain clarity by asking if the results reflected accurately how they feel. The quiz is just the start of the conversation. The questions shouldn’t end when the person hits the submit button 

Making assumptions happens when we take people for granted, that’s why it tends to happen most with our nearest and dearest. Putting a quiz out there to check yours and other’s assumptions shows them, be they employees, stakeholders or clients, that you value them and take their opinions and feelings seriously and that you want to understand them. 

Making assumptions compromises communication. And communication is a two-way street, or three or four or ten, depends on who’s part of the conversation. However many people are involved, it’s everyone’s responsibility to ensure they understand and are understood.  

The resolutions to the assumptions that a quiz uncovers can help you decide to continue with a change of direction or abandon the enterprise altogether. Using a quiz to proactively check assumptions benefits everyone.