Example data. Fieldnote is a fictional company used to fill all 61 boards, so the examples tell one consistent story.
Pre-PMF Fieldnote, 12 paying companies. Élise, Karim, Tom and Nadia, with two customer quotes pasted on the side of the board.
What the team took away
The statement dropped the word "app" entirely; three assumptions went straight into the research plan.
How to run it
Preparation
Bring one or two people who talk to customers every week (support, sales, CSM). Without them the board fills with product opinions.
Collect 5 to 10 verbatim customer quotes or support tickets and paste them on the side of the board before the session.
Ask everyone to write their own one-sentence version of the problem before coming. Do not share them yet.
Set up the board with the three top blocks visible and the Statement block hidden until the end.
Agenda
10 min
Reveal the drafts Everyone pastes their pre-written problem sentence. Read them aloud without comment. The gaps between them are the agenda.
20 min
Who and what Fill Who has the problem with a specific person, not a segment ('Léa, ops manager at a 40-person clinic'). Then What problem, in their words, using the quotes.
15 min
Why now What changed in the last 12 months that makes this worth solving today? If nobody can answer, note it as the first assumption.
25 min
Know versus assume Sort every claim on the board: proven by data or interviews goes left, everything else goes right. Be strict: 'everyone knows' is an assumption.
20 min
Write the statement In pairs, write one sentence: who, struggles with what, because of, which costs them. Vote, then merge the top two into the final.
Pitfalls
If the statement contains a feature name, it is a solution in disguise. Rewrite it until a competitor could solve the same sentence differently.
A segment ('SMBs') in the Who block hides ten different problems. Push for a named person with a role and a context.
Do not end with an empty Assume column. Three assumptions minimum, and each one becomes an item for the research plan.
Afterwards
The statement becomes the first line of the PRD and the brief for research. The Assume column feeds Assumption mapping directly, then the Research plan.