In July 2025 I was headhunted by Catch22, who runs the Goodtech Accelerator Programme, be a facilitator for their Cohort #4, beginning in November 2025.

I was hired to deliver a full-day, in person workshop to their founders about Product-Market Fit.

I titled the workshop:

“The Road to Product-Market Fit: How to know where you are and get there with confidence”

I designed a workshop so that, by the end of the day, founders would leave with:

✨ Understanding of where they are in the path to PMF
✨ Understanding of lean validation methods and when to use them
✨ Repeatable tools that validate their next step
✨ An actionable plan to move them closer to PFM

How the day went

Morning

Section 1: Understanding where they are in the journey

After starting with a warm-up and some introductions, we dove straight into understanding the product-market fit journey.

In the startup world, much is said about getting to product-market fit, and sometimes it can seem like the road is straightforward:

Idea → MVP → early traction → PMF.

I explained that not only is this not the case, but there are actually many unsexy “death points” along the path.

Then I talked about the danger of being “right” too soon: building too hard and scaling too quickly without enough evidence to validate the next step.

We then explored each stage of the journey and discussed:

• The main question that needs to be answered
• The key piece of evidence that needs to be chased
• What success looks like

After some exposition, they moved to a Miro board to complete an exercise I designed:

🧭 The PMF Stage Self-Diagnosis, where they were prompted to reflect on where they currently are in the journey.

Section 2: Identifying their riskiest assumption

We then moved to what I believe is step one of any new venture: surfacing assumptions and identifying the riskiest ones.

I showed them how every startup idea is a collection of assumptions about:

🎯 A problem space
🙋 The people who experience this problem
💡 A solution to this problem (the idea)
💎 The value it brings to people (what compels them to use it and pay for it)

Using a mix of prompts on a Miro board and personal guidance, they were supported in writing down their assumptions.

After that, they mapped them in a 🚨 Risk Mapping Matrix – another framework I designed and made available for them in Miro.

At this point, it became clear to many that they were making a lot of decisions based on assumptions without evidence, and they were able to identify which assumptions were truly the riskiest.

That was the end of the morning.

Afternoon

Section 4: Turning assumptions into evidence

After lunch, I introduced different types of evidence and experiments.

We talked about qualitative vs. quantitative data and the types of questions each can answer.

We also discussed what counts as reliable data and what doesn’t, and why this distinction matters.

In the context of startup validation:

After this, the founders returned to the Miro board to:

• Identify their riskiest assumption
• Define the evidence needed to verify it
• Define the type of data required to gather that evidence

This marked the beginning of their validation sprint plan.

Section 5: Designing their validation sprint

Here, I shared the core qualities of effective early-stage validation sprints:

⚡️ Fast: measured in days, not weeks
🎯 Focused: test one thing at a time
💸 Frugal: use minimal resources

We then explored the two main types of experiments – open exploration and tests – and what each is best suited for.

After that, we reviewed classic data-gathering methods such as discovery interviews, storyboarding, Wizard of Oz tests, surveys, fake door tests, and more, alongside what each method can realistically help uncover.

I also created a few exclusive resources for them:

• 🧪 The Startup Experiment Cheat Sheet
  A Notion page helping them choose the right experiment method based on:
  • The type of data they need
  • Their learning objective
  • Examples of how each method works

• Individual Notion-based guides for each experiment method, including:
  • Best practices
  • Do’s and don’ts
  • Common pitfalls

Section 6: Designing their first experiment

At the end of an intense day, and with a much clearer understanding of the questions they needed to answer and the methods available to investigate them, each founder selected one method and returned to the Miro board for hands-on design work.

I created structured guidance for each method to support independent work, while also offering personalised assistance to each founder.

Outcomes

By the end of the day, each founder had:

• Clarity on what evidence they needed to gather to validate their next step
• A concrete plan to gather that evidence
• A first version of their validation experiment

The feedback was overwhelmingly positive, not only from the founders themselves, but also from the organisers at GoodTech Ventures.

What could this look like in your organisation?

If you run an entrepreneurship programme, accelerator, incubator, or venture studio and want someone to train your founders to stop guessing and start making evidence-based decisions, I’d love to help you build something similar.

I design and deliver practical, high-impact workshops that help founders:

• Understand where they really are
• Identify what actually needs validating now
• And leave with a clear plan to move forward with confidence

Click here to book a call with me to explore how this could work for your organisation.

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👋 Hi! I’m Daniela Navaes, and I help businesses, startups, and founders turn ideas into market-ready experiences.