“At a prior publication, when asked what their audience was — who are your readers — they would have strong opinions based on the assumptions of the executives. But when you went back and said 'what is this based on?' — it's often no, it's just 'that's what I built it for originally and I'm assuming that's who my audience is because no one said otherwise.'”

Your Actual Audience Will Surprise You — Validate Assumptions With Data Early

Every founder has a mental model of who their user is — and it's almost always wrong in at least one material way. Taylor Wells saw this pattern repeatedly: executives defending audience assumptions that had never been validated by data. At Disney+, over 50% of viewers were single adults on a platform assumed to be for families. Building the habit of asking 'what is this based on?' early prevents six months of product decisions aimed at the wrong person.