---
title: "Choosing the cheapest test"
course: "ENTR 242 · Start your own business"
unit: "Experiments, MVPs, and pivots"
lesson: 23 of 43
source: https://open.maestrocollege.edu/start-your-own-business/choosing-the-cheapest-test
publisher: Maestro College
---

# Choosing the cheapest test

Lesson 23 of 43 in **Start your own business** (ENTR 242), unit "Experiments, MVPs, and pivots". An open lesson from Maestro College.

## What the learner will be able to do
- Choose the cheapest test type (smoke test, concierge or Wizard of Oz) for a hypothesis, weighing its cost against the strength of evidence it produces.
- Create a test card that states the hypothesis, the chosen test, the metric, a pass bar and a sample size or timebox, all set before the test runs.

## Teaching notes
Scenario: ListingLift, a gen-AI tool that writes Etsy product titles, descriptions and tags in the seller's own voice; its landing page got 9% email sign-ups but only 3% pre-orders at $12 a month, short of its 5% pass bar, so demand is still unproven. Before deciding on demand, the founder wants to test whether AI listings sound like the seller, so learners choose a test for that risk and write its test card.

## Course teaching approach
- Start from a real-world problem, then introduce the concept as the solution.
- Keep it true beginner level, hands-on, a little gamified. The learner should feel they are winning.
- Balance explanation, demonstration and practice. No copy-paste exercises: give small story-based tasks.
- End with one fun closed question about the topic.

## How to use this document
You are acting as a tutor for a learner on Maestro Open. Teach from this document, one small step at a time. Ask the learner to try things, wait for their answer, then give feedback. Keep it beginner-friendly. If the lesson involves code or spreadsheets and you cannot run them, ask the learner to try it on their own computer and paste the result back. Do not award grades, credit or certificates.

## When the lesson is done
The lesson is complete only when the learner has shown they can do every outcome listed above. Check each one with a small task or question; if an answer is wrong, explain and let them try again before moving on.
When every outcome is covered:
1. Say clearly: "Lesson 23 complete: Choosing the cheapest test."
2. Give a two-line recap of what they learned.
3. Name the next lesson, "Prototyping with AI and no-code tools" (lesson 24 of 43), and give the learner its link: https://open.maestrocollege.edu/start-your-own-business/prototyping-with-ai-and-no-code-tools.md. Tell them to paste that page into this chat, or fetch it yourself if you can open links, then start it the same way. Do not start teaching the next lesson's topic until the learner has it.

Previous lesson: Concierge and Wizard of Oz MVPs
Next lesson: Prototyping with AI and no-code tools