The advice wasn't wrong; the question got swapped
Frameworks are built to create judgment. Founders translate them into tasks. The advice wasn't wrong: the question underneath it got swapped.
Startup frameworks were built to create judgment, to help you find out whether you're wrong before it gets expensive. Founders hear them as tasks to complete instead. "Do customer discovery" was never "confirm your idea." It was "try to kill it." The advice is usually fine. The question underneath it quietly gets swapped for an easier one.
"I finished customer discovery," a founder told me, proud. "Thirty interviews."
"Great," I said. "What did you find out that could kill the idea?"
Silence.
He'd asked thirty people if they had the problem. Thirty people said yes. He'd written it all down and checked the box.
But discovery was never built to confirm your idea. It was built to attack it, to find out, while it's still cheap, whether anyone wants the outcome badly enough to act.
He'd taken a tool meant to build judgment and turned it into a task to complete. So it confirmed what he already believed and taught him nothing.
The advice, "go do discovery", was good. He just heard a different question underneath it than the one it was asking.
The advice wasn't wrong. The question underneath it quietly got swapped for an easier one.