In the context of the Lean Startup methodology, how do boundary conditions influence hypothesis testing and iterative development while managing risks effectively?

Boundary conditions are the limits or assumptions you set around your product’s use, like the number of users or the type of device. They let you focus a hypothesis test on a realistic slice of the market, so you don’t waste effort on unlikely scenarios. By defining these limits, you can measure risk more precisely; if a test fails outside the boundary, you know the product won’t work there, not that the idea is dead. In practice, a startup might test a new payment feature only for mobile users in a specific city, then iterate only for that segment before scaling. This targeted approach keeps experiments small, costs low, and risk under control.