Readiness resources
Tools for doing the work.
Practical resources to help founders move from assumptions to evidence — through better conversations, stronger experiments, and clearer decisions.
- Assumptions
- Conversations
- Signals
- Evidence
- Decisions
- Readiness
From the Lab
Ideas we are testing in the field.
Field Notes on applied practice, founder behavior, and the working frameworks behind RIL programs.
Readiness
5 min read
What 'ready' actually means at pre-seed
At pre-seed, readiness is not about having everything figured out. It is about using customer discovery, traction signals, and disciplined learning to make sharper decisions.
Methodology
7 min read
The interview your data is refusing to confirm
When 12 of 14 interviews say one thing, the two outliers usually matter more than you think. Outlier interviews can reveal the most important signal.
Practice
2 min read
Stop pitching your problem. Describe your customer's day.
Strong customer discovery starts by understanding the customer's actual day, not by pitching the problem.
Community
3 min read
Why we don't run a generic founder community
RIL is a structured readiness community designed to help founders turn learning into clearer strategy and next steps.
Ideas + methods that inform the Lab
What are you trying to figure out?
Choose the work in front of you. These are authoritative tools and research the Lab builds on—not a generic reading list.
How to Talk to Users
Ask better questions
A practical guide for founders and teams on how to conduct better customer conversations. It reinforces the habits that make discovery useful: asking better questions, listening carefully, and learning from real users.
Founders + startup teams
Start hereCustomer Development
Understand the whole arc
The foundational methodology behind modern customer discovery. Steve Blank's work helps teams test assumptions early, validate real customer needs, and avoid building in the dark.
Founders + program leaders
Start hereInterview Method
Run a better interview
A human-centered design resource for conducting more thoughtful interviews. It supports stronger qualitative research by helping teams learn directly from the people they are designing for.
Founders + facilitators
Try the methodThe Five Whys
Get past the polite answer
A simple but powerful technique for moving past surface-level answers to deeper motivations, behaviors, and barriers. It complements customer interviews by helping teams uncover the root cause behind what people say.
Founders + facilitators
Try the exerciseKnow Your Customers’ "Jobs to Be Done"
Find the pattern under the notes
A classic framework for understanding the progress customers are trying to make in their lives and work. It helps teams move beyond features and focus on the real problems customers hire a solution to solve.
Founders + startup teams
ReadDemand Pull vs. Resource Push Training Approaches to Entrepreneurship
Know what actually changes outcomes
A field experiment showing that entrepreneurs trained to focus more deeply on customer needs acquired more than twice the number of customers and generated 65% higher revenues than the comparison group.
Program leaders + founders
Read the studyDeterminants of Early-Stage Startup Performance
Make the case for the method
Research showing that lean startup practices, including customer discovery and effective pivoting, were associated with stronger seed equity valuation growth in early-stage startups.
Founders + program leaders
Read the researchNSF I-Corps
See structured discovery in practice
A nationally recognized innovation program built around experiential customer discovery. I-Corps helps teams assess market potential by talking directly to customers, partners, and stakeholders.
Researchers + commercialization teams
View resourceNSF I-Corps National Teams
Understand the depth expected
A strong example of rigorous discovery in practice. The National Teams program requires structured customer discovery and a minimum of 100 customer interviews during the training process.
Researchers + technical founders
View resourceLean LaunchPad and Customer Discovery as Qualitative Research
Defend the method to reviewers
An academic reference connecting customer discovery to established qualitative research practice — especially useful for research institutions, university programs, and evidence-oriented partners.
Universities + I-Corps facilitators
Read the paperShowing 10 of 10 resources. Every resource here is an external publication we build on—links open on the original publisher’s site.
For program leaders
Running discovery with a cohort?
Use the program-leader filter for research and methods that support facilitation, commercialization, and evidence standards across a cohort.
Filter shortcut
Use the For program leaders filter above to see only the resources built for facilitation, curriculum, and evidence standards.
Glossary
A shared language for readiness.
Short definitions for terms used across RIL programs and Field Notes.
- Analog Room
- A small, in-person, phones-down working session for founders. Structured prompts, no panels, no pitching—clarity over performance.
- Signal Table
- An invitation-only dinner built around one real readiness question. A handful of founders, one operator host, one shared signal.
- Founder Readiness Sprint
- A structured program where founders run real customer conversations, review what they reveal, and leave with a defensible next decision.
- The Founder Reset™
- An invitation-based experience for founders navigating a major shift—re-grounding, not escape.
- Humans in the Loop
- RIL's convening format for ecosystem builders and founders—dialogue instead of stages.
- Field Notes
- RIL's published writing on methodology, philosophy, and observations from the field.
- Readiness Signal
- A defensible, evidence-backed indicator that a problem, persona, or solution direction is real. Built from conversations, not opinions.
Applied practice