Distil's interview process is grounded in five proven startup frameworks. Each one brings a different lens to your idea, and together they give you a complete picture.
These aren't buzzwords. They're the same tools used by the best startup mentors, accelerators, and venture firms worldwide.
Most idea validation is shallow. People ask their friends, get polite encouragement, and start building. Months later they discover nobody actually wants what they've made.
Each of these frameworks attacks a different blind spot. The Mom Test stops you from asking leading questions. Jobs-to-be-Done makes sure you understand why customers switch. Lean Validation forces you to test assumptions before committing. The Value Proposition Canvas checks whether your solution actually fits the problem. Customer Discovery gets you talking to real people instead of guessing.
Distil weaves them together into a single conversation. During the early phases, we lean on the Mom Test and JTBD to understand the problem. As we explore your solution, the Value Proposition Canvas and Lean Validation take over. When we assess your market, Customer Discovery principles guide the questioning. By the end, all five contribute to your score.
Clayton Christensen · Christensen Institute · Book: Competing Against Luck
People don't buy products. They hire them to make progress in their lives. A person doesn't buy a drill because they want a drill; they want a hole in the wall. JTBD looks past demographics and features to understand the real reason someone would switch to your solution.
Push: Pain with the current situation that makes someone want to change.
Pull: The appeal of a new, better solution.
Anxiety: Fear of the unknown, risk, learning curves.
Habit: Comfort with the way things are, switching costs.
For someone to switch, push + pull must exceed anxiety + habit.
During early conversation, Distil explores what progress your customer is trying to make. It asks about struggling moments, switching triggers, and whether the job is functional, emotional, or social. This shapes your Problem Clarity score.
Rob Fitzpatrick · momtestbook.com · Book: The Mom Test
If you ask your mum whether your business idea is good, she'll say yes. Not because it is, but because she loves you. The Mom Test is a set of rules for asking questions that even your mum can't lie to you about. Talk about their life, not your idea. Ask about specifics in the past, not hypotheticals about the future.
Bad: "Do you think this is a good idea?" / "Would you buy this?" / "How much would you pay?"
Good: "Tell me about the last time you dealt with this problem." / "What did you do about it?" / "How much does this cost you in time or money?"
The Mom Test shapes every question Distil asks, especially in early phases. When you make a claim about your customers, Distil pushes for concrete evidence. "You said small businesses struggle with this. Can you tell me about a specific conversation where someone described that struggle?" It never asks "is this a good idea?" because the answer would be meaningless.
Eric Ries · theleanstartup.com · Book: The Lean Startup
Every business idea is a bundle of assumptions. Lean Validation says: find the riskiest assumption and test it before you build anything. Don't spend six months building a product only to discover nobody wants it. Spend six days running an experiment instead.
Weak: People say they're interested (opinions)
Medium: People take action (sign up, share email)
Strong: People pay money or invest significant time
Strongest: People repeatedly use and refer others
During solution exploration, Distil asks you to identify your riskiest assumption and what evidence you have for it. It distinguishes between opinions ("people said they'd use it") and behaviour ("people paid for a beta"). This directly feeds your Idea Maturity score.
Alexander Osterwalder · strategyzer.com · Book: Value Proposition Design
The Value Proposition Canvas is a visual tool for checking whether your product actually fits what your customer needs. On one side: the customer's jobs, pains, and gains. On the other: your product's features, pain relievers, and gain creators. The magic is in the mapping between the two.
Customer Profile: Jobs (what they're trying to do), Pains (what frustrates them), Gains (what success looks like)
Value Map: Products/services (what you offer), Pain relievers (how you reduce pains), Gain creators (how you deliver gains)
Fit happens when every pain reliever maps to a real pain and every gain creator maps to a real gain.
When exploring your solution, Distil checks whether your features address specific customer pains and gains, not just vague "improvements." It asks: "You mentioned your customer struggles with X. How specifically does your product address that?" This shapes your Solution Potential score.
Steve Blank · steveblank.com · Book: The Four Steps to the Epiphany
Steve Blank's foundational insight: no business plan survives first contact with customers. Customer Discovery is the process of getting out of the building and testing your hypotheses with real people. It's not about confirming what you believe. It's about finding out what's actually true.
Customers describe a different problem than you expected.
They care about different features than you planned.
Your target segment isn't reachable or willing to pay.
A different customer segment responds more strongly.
The problem exists but isn't painful enough for a new solution.
During the deep dive phase, Distil asks whether you've spoken to real people with this problem. How many? What did they say? Have you found patterns? It also checks whether you've identified alternatives your customers have tried and why those failed. This feeds into all three scoring dimensions.
Primary frameworks: Mom Test + Jobs-to-be-Done
Distil asks about your life and your customers' lives, not your idea. It explores what progress your customer is trying to make and what's pushing them away from the status quo.
Primary frameworks: Value Proposition Canvas + Lean Validation
Does your solution map to real customer pains and gains? What's your riskiest assumption? What evidence do you have? Distil pushes for specifics, not hand-waving.
Primary frameworks: Customer Discovery + all supporting
Have you talked to real people? How many? What patterns emerged? What alternatives exist? Distil brings Steve Blank's discipline to understanding whether this market is real and reachable.
All five frameworks contribute to your final score across Problem Clarity, Solution Potential, and Idea Maturity. Every strength and gap is grounded in established methodology.
Ten minutes. Five frameworks. One honest assessment.
Test My Idea