when you have only one test, you don’t have entrepreneurs, you have politicians, because you have to sell. - Eric Ries

Validated learning is the process of demonstrating empirically that a team has discovered valuable truths about a startup’s present and future business prospects.

This is the same problem that established companies experience. Their past successes were built on a finely tuned engine of growth. If that engine runs its course and growth slows or stops, there can be a crisis if the company does not have new startups incubating within its ranks that can provide new sources of growth. Companies of any size can suffer from this perpetual affliction. They need to manage a portfolio of activities, simultaneously tuning their engine of growth and developing new sources of growth for when that engine inevitably runs its course.

Fire that customer,” I’d say to the person responsible for recruiting for our tests. “Find me someone in our target demographic.” If the next customer was more positive, I would take it as confirmation that I was right in my targeting. If not, I’d fire another customer and try again.