Hypotheses

The hypotheses principle: when you have a question try to generate your own hypotheses for a solution before seeking help or answers from someone else.

Why is creating hypotheses important when you have a question?

They help to develop:

Autonomy: The ability to function on your own.
Capability: Having the necessary tools to be autonomous.
Empowerment: Feeling confident that you are capable and able to be autonomous.
Learning: Rapidly learning and self development.

More specifically:

When you're wrong about a hypothesis, you can learn where you made a mistake, or how to improve next time. You learn a lot more even when you're incorrect.
It's good practice to come up with hypotheses when you're stuck, because you might come up with a working solution on your own.
Writing out your hypotheses can help to clarify your thoughts.
- Though questions can come from confusion, in clarifying your questions (even if only to yourself), it may lead to understanding the problem from a different perspective.
They can enhance your analytical skill – being willing ask questions is a great tool, but learning how to form your own hypotheses without outside help is invaluable.
When you ask questions without your own hypotheses, you remain stuck, and dependent on someone else.
Coming up with hypotheses teaches you to break down problems into smaller, more manageable parts. This can also help you more easily understand where the gaps in your knowledge are.

Examples

Suppose someone gives you a vaguely defined task e.g. "Improve the website". One option is to ask lots of questions e.g

What is the definition of done? Do you have acceptance criteria?
How much time should I spend on this?
Are there existing plans and materials?

This is already good … and even better is to start generating your own hypotheses for answers to these questions. Now these hypotheses don't have to be exactly right – in fact, they almost certainly won't be – but they will help move things forward much better.

For example, for first item you could up with 3-4 ideas for what the acceptance criteria are. Even if turns out they are way off base they will catalyse clarification from the other person.

Examples

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