đź’ˇ Product Circle â• Chat - You're Not Funding Ideas. You're Funding Assumptions. with David Bland
​Welcome to 💡 Product Circle ╠Chat on
đź•— Tuesday 28 July 2026 1pm PT, California, USA
​🕗 Wednesday 29 July 2026 8am AEST, Melbourne/Sydney, Australia
​Topic: Kill With Confidence: Turning Assumptions into Evidence for Better Decisions
​AI is not going to make your decisions for you. But it is making bad ones cheaper to reach. 🔍
​Most teams are using AI to generate more ideas, faster. More concepts ➝ more options ➝ more pressure to pick one and go.
​The problem isn't the speed. It's what happens next.
​Because most organisations are still committing time and capital the same way they always have — based on untested assumptions, internal opinion, and incomplete validation. AI accelerates that too.
​In this 💡 Product Circle ╠Chat, David Bland joins us to introduce a practical approach to making assumptions explicit, prioritising what must be true, and generating real evidence before committing further resources.
​Not theory. A system that works. One that leads your team to a clear call: commit, correct, or cut.
​What we'll cover
​✅ Why funding assumptions is not the same as funding ideas. Most organisations are doing one while believing they're doing the other. Here's how to tell the difference — and why it matters before more capital is committed.
​✅ Making assumptions explicit. The first step isn't running experiments. It's surfacing what your team believes to be true and hasn't tested. David will walk through how to do this in practice.
​✅ Prioritising what must be true. Not all assumptions carry equal risk. Learn how to identify and sequence the ones that, if wrong, will sink the initiative — before you've invested months finding out.
​✅ Moving to a clear decision. Commit, correct, or cut. David will show how evidence-backed decision-making replaces opinion-driven debates and gives leadership teams the confidence to act — in either direction.
​You'll leave with a practical approach to assumptions mapping you can apply immediately and language to shift your team from gut feel to evidence.
​This is a chat you truly don't want to miss!
​
​About David Bland
​David J. Bland helps leadership teams improve the speed and impact of high-stakes growth bets by turning assumptions into evidence before more time or capital is committed.
​He is the lead author of Testing Business Ideas and the founder of Precoil, where he works with organisations to build practical, repeatable systems for better decision-making under uncertainty. His work focuses on helping teams move beyond opinion-driven debates to evidence-backed decisions — so they can commit, correct, or cut with confidence.
​David has worked with leadership teams inside organisations including GE, Toyota, Adobe, and HP. He has been building and refining this approach for over a decade.
​Find his writing at precoil.com, catch his How I Tested That Podcast or connect on LinkedIn.
​Zoom Link: See invite
​✨Virtual Networking ✨
​The first hour of the Chat will be recorded. Afterward, stay on for live networking with product and tech peers from around the world—no recording, just meaningful connections.
​Mark your calendar and bring your questions for David.
✨Refer a Friend✨
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✨Huge Speakers Booked✨
​We have great global product speakers booked every second week this year!
​If you missed our past speakers, catch up on the recordings with Christian Idiodi, Petra Wille, Rich Mironov, Jason Knight, Geoffrey Moore, April Dunford, Bob Moesta and many other Leaders!
​All Product Circle Chat recording will be posted at https://theproductvenn.substack.com/
​thanks,
​Irene
​--
​Irene Liakos
​Product
[email protected]
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