Business Assumption Stress Testing

This skill stress-tests business assumptions by isolating them, finding counter-evidence, modeling downside scenarios, calculating sensitivity, and proposing hedges. It produces a structured output that helps founders and executives validate or adjust their plans before committing.

✨ What it does

  • Isolates assumptions into specific, testable statements.
  • Guides search for counter-evidence from failures, data, and skeptics.
  • Models downside scenarios (bear, stress, catastrophic) with impact on survival.
  • Calculates sensitivity to identify key levers.
  • Proposes validation, contingency, and early-warning hedges.
  • Provides stress-test patterns for revenue, market size, moat, hiring, and competitive response.

🎯 When to use it

  • Before betting on a plan whose core assumptions are unvalidated, such as revenue projections or market size.
  • When the team agrees on an assumption without questioning it, indicating potential blind spots.
  • When preparing for investor discussions or major strategic decisions that rely on key business metrics.
  • When a plan shows optimistic growth or performance that hasn't been tested against realistic scenarios.

🚀 How to use

Trigger: /em:stress-test

Trigger with the slash command /em:stress-test <assumption> or by asking to stress-test a specific business assumption. Provide the assumption you want to test, ideally as a specific statement. The skill will guide you through the methodology and produce a structured output.

Example prompts:

/em:stress-test "Enterprise buyers will tolerate a 6-month pilot"
Stress-test our revenue projection of $2M ARR by December.

📄 Output: A structured stress-test report with sections for assumption, counter-evidence, downside model, sensitivity, and hedge.

📦 Add this skill to Claude Code

# 1. Get the skills repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/alirezarezvani/claude-skills /tmp/claude-skills

# 2. Copy this skill into your project (or ~/.claude/skills for all projects)
mkdir -p .claude/skills
cp -r /tmp/claude-skills/c-level-advisor/executive-mentor/skills/stress-test .claude/skills/stress-test

Skill source: c-level-advisor/executive-mentor/skills/stress-test/SKILL.md

⚠️ Good to know

The skill requires the user to provide a specific assumption; it does not automatically gather external data or validate assumptions without user input.

❓ FAQ

What types of assumptions can be stress-tested?

Common types include market size, customer behavior, revenue model, competitive position, execution, and macro factors.

How do I know if an assumption is high sensitivity?

Sensitivity is determined by how much the outcome changes when the assumption changes; high sensitivity means a small change has a large impact.

What should I do if the stress test shows the business doesn't survive in the catastrophic case?

The skill suggests proposing hedges, including validation, contingency, and early-warning hedges, to mitigate the risk before betting on the plan.

🤖 Overview, features, install steps and FAQ were generated from the project's SKILL.md on Sep 4, 2026. Always check the original source before running commands.