# Audience Assumption Validation

Test whether planning beliefs about readers, situations, language, barriers, trust, channels, and desired outcomes are supported, contradicted, or still unknown.

## Usage note

Use this worksheet before an assumption becomes a persona fact, campaign claim, or publishing investment. Write assumptions so evidence could prove them wrong. Protect research participants and data, distinguish exploratory findings from representative measurement, and keep important decisions reversible while confidence is low.

## How to use this template

1. Inventory beliefs that materially affect audience choice, content scope, message, format, channel, or expected outcome.
2. Rewrite each belief as one specific, falsifiable statement with audience, situation, behavior, and signal.
3. Define supporting, contradicting, and inconclusive evidence before selecting the method.
4. Collect appropriate evidence, preserve limitations and negative cases, and rate confidence with a written rationale.
5. Make the pre-agreed decision, record what remains uncertain, and schedule revalidation when relevant conditions change.

## Blank template

### Assumption statement

- **Assumption ID:** [Durable identifier]
- **Audience:** [Specific group]
- **Situation:** [When the belief should apply]
- **Believed need or behavior:** [One claim]
- **Observable signal:** [What could be seen or measured?]
- **Planning decision affected:** [Content, message, format, channel, or investment]
- **Source of belief:** [Evidence or intuition]
- **Current confidence:** [High / Medium / Low, with reason]
- **Cost of being wrong:** [Reader and organizational consequence]

### Disconfirmation plan

- **Evidence that would support:** [Specific observation]
- **Evidence that would contradict:** [Specific observation]
- **Inconclusive outcome:** [What would remain ambiguous?]
- **Alternative explanation:** [Another cause for the same signal]
- **Research method:** [Interview, observation, analysis, survey, test, or another]
- **Recruitment or dataset:** [Relevant population and variation]
- **Missing perspective:** [Who may not be represented?]
- **Ethical or privacy control:** [Consent, minimization, or access]

### Findings

- **Evidence collected:** [Source links and dates]
- **Supporting result:** [What aligns with the statement?]
- **Contradicting result:** [What does not?]
- **Negative case:** [Important exception]
- **Method limitation:** [What cannot be inferred?]
- **Status:** [Supported / Contradicted / Mixed / Unknown]
- **Updated confidence:** [Rating and rationale]
- [ ] Finding language matches the method and sample.
- [ ] Correlation is not described as causation without support.
- [ ] The scope and date remain attached to the result.

### Decision

- **If supported:** [Action]
- **If contradicted:** [Action]
- **If mixed or unknown:** [Reversible step or further research]
- **Actual decision:** [Chosen action]
- **Decision owner:** [Authorized role]
- **Residual uncertainty:** [What remains?]
- **Revalidation trigger:** [Date, audience, product, policy, or channel change]