TLDR
Our skills in design and our creative prowess captures the essence of your brand.
Our skills in design and our creative prowess captures the essence of your brand.
In times of high uncertainty, small experiments provide a way to move forward with lower risk
The four-phase process (Grounding & Inquiry, Focused Framing, Open Testing, Reflective Learning) creates a sustainable rhythm for testing ideas without overbuilding.
Successful experiments focus on intentional design with clear constraints, prioritize learning over convincing, and honor both business metrics and founder wellbeing.
As 2025 unfolds, the conversations around our studio table feel a little different.
Founders aren't just talking about scaling. They're talking about surviving. About staying rooted while the ground keeps shifting politically, economically, and personally.
Across casual chats, coaching sessions, and project rooms, we keep hearing versions of the same questions:
How do I keep moving when the future feels this uncertain? How do I build without burning myself out? What if growth doesn't look the way it's "supposed" to look anymore?
Recent data shows founders feeling stuck more than ever. The National Federation of Independent Business reports their Uncertainty Index hitting its second-highest reading since 1973 in February 2025. As the NFIB's chief economist Bill Dunkelberg noted, "confidence that the economy will continue to grow is fading."
At OpenHouse, we've been listening closely, and what we are seeing is that founders need a different way to experiment, learn, and grow their businesses thoughtfully.
That's where small-scale experiments come in. Not just as tools for launching new things, but as practical methods for figuring out real problems, building momentum during hard times, and learning how to continue innovating when the path isn't clear.
While experiments are nothing new, most people think about them only for launching products. What we've found at OpenHouse is that small experiments are a strategy that works for:
• Figuring out which ideas work under real constraints.
• Creating momentum when progress feels stuck.
• Staying connected with your community rather than guessing from a distance.
When everything feels uncertain, control often looks like choosing smaller steps you can actually take and learning deeply from them.
Experimentation is a key ingredient in continuous innovation, successful companies often are spending 80-90% of their time and resources in cycles of continuous innovation, and 10-20% in breakthrough innovation efforts.
This signals something different than the idea of a lab. Labs can sometimes be too separated from the world they're trying to understand. But kitchens?
Kitchens are intimate. Messy. Communal. They are places where experimentation is folded into everyday life. Where recipes evolve, ingredients are shared, and learning happens through doing. We hope the reframe of a Test Kitchen gives entrepreneurs a place to work things out, not behind closed doors but in conversation with reality.
Our small experiments reflect this reality. It's a rhythm founders can return to, again and again, through changing seasons and new business challenges.
Start from where you are, not where you "should" be.
This phase is all about noticing. Instead of starting with a solution, we ask founders to tune into what's happening right now. In their business, in their community, and within themselves. Patterns tend to emerge when we stop trying to rush clarity.
This creates a grounded place to begin experimenting from, not based on urgency or pressure but on what's truly ready to be explored.
Key Question:
What feels harder than it should be right now?
What patterns or needs are emerging in your business or community?
Once you've named the challenge, it's easy to feel like you need to fix it all at once. The power of this phase lies in its restraint. We help founders resist the urge to overbuild and identify the smallest version of an idea that could reveal something meaningful.
In intentional design, every element serves a purpose. Every interaction is planned. Start by asking: "What do I need to learn?" Then strip away anything that doesn't help you answer that question.
Three core principles guide this phase:
Intentional design lets you focus on what matters most, while keeping time, energy, and cost within reach.
Key Question: What's the smallest version of your idea or next step you could put into the world?
This phase is the heart of the Test Kitchen. It's where ideas meet community. We believe testing should be human and communal. Experiments become powerful when they live in the same context as your business. Among your people, in your environment, shaped by what's already available to you.
We support founders to share their early ideas in familiar spaces observing how those ideas resonate, challenge, or shift expectations.
When experimentation happens in community, it builds both insight and trust. That's what moves ideas from theory to traction.
Too often, testing is framed as a data grab or a performance. We take a different approach. Open testing is about real experiences in real time. Not for show, but for understanding.
We help founders share their ideas in ways that are invitational, not extractive. This creates space for honest feedback and helps protect energy on both sides. If your community feels seen and respected during your experiment, you're on the right track.
Key Question: How does this version land with real people in real time?
This is the phase where insight becomes action. Rather than rushing to the next thing, we ask: What did we learn? What changed?
Sometimes the biggest revelations come from what didn't work. Or from the unexpected responses no one saw coming. We help founders explore those moments with curiosity, not judgment, and use them to shape the next step in their rhythm.
Key Question: What surprised you? What pattern or new insight emerged?
Learning when to persist or pivot feels like one of the trickiest parts of running experiments. It's that moment when you're staring at mixed results, feeling attached to your original idea, but noticing signals that maybe there's a different direction worth exploring.
We've found that setting clear "this is working when..." indicators before testing helps make these decisions less personal. The founders we work with who navigate this dance well don't treat pivot points as failures—they see them as valuable information that keeps them from investing months in paths that won't serve their communities.
Sometimes the clarity comes from noticing your own energy. Are you explaining away feedback? Are you dreading certain aspects of moving forward? These feeling-based signals can be just as important as the data you're collecting. This is why we create space for both reflection and honest conversation throughout the experimentation process—sometimes it takes saying your thoughts out loud to someone else to recognize when it's time to adjust course.
As we work with founders choosing practical experiments over rapid scaling, clear patterns are emerging. They make tangible progress without overcommitting resources. Their research yields more useful insights because they're genuinely connecting with their communities.
We notice these founders maintain their energy over months, not just weeks. They build businesses that fit around their actual circumstances – their families, health needs, and personal values. This creates a foundation for sustainable work that doesn't require constant crisis management or exhaustion.
If you're navigating uncertainty and looking for a more sustainable way to test, learn, and grow, we're here.
We offer 30-minute Design Decode Sessions and 2-week experiment to help you move from stuck to momentum. Whether you're navigating a messy middle or testing a new idea, we'll help you design a next step grounded in your reality.
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