Your Blueprint for External Perspective Research

Done well, this external research transforms your diagnosis from informed opinion to validated insight. It tells you where your team’s perceptions are accurate and where they’re off. It reveals the problems beneath the problems. And it gives you the confidence to make decisions that address root causes rather than symptoms.

Let’s dive into each approach with enough tactical detail that you can execute it.

PART 1: CUSTOMER DISCOVERY

Why Your Team’s Customer Knowledge Isn’t Enough

Your organisation talks to customers constantly. Your sales team is in daily conversations with prospects. Your customer success team has regular check-ins with existing customers. Your product team probably does user research and reviews support tickets. Your marketing team conducts surveys and analyses web behaviour.

So why do you need to do additional customer discovery?

Because every conversation your team has is filtered through their role and objectives:

Sales conversations are filtered by the need to close deals. Salespeople are brilliant at reading buying signals and adjusting their pitch. But they’re hearing what prospects are willing to say to someone trying to sell them something. Prospects are polite. They give false objections to avoid the real ones. They ask for discounts when price isn’t actually the issue. They say they’ll “think about it,” even though they’ve already decided no.

What you get from sales: What prospects say to salespeople. What you need: What prospects actually think and do when evaluating solutions.

Customer success conversations are filtered by the relationship dynamics. CS teams are trying to ensure adoption, prevent churn, and identify expansion opportunities. Customers are generally trying to be nice to the person helping them. They’ll say things are going well when they’re frustrated. They’ll request features to avoid admitting they don’t see value. They’ll blame their own team instead of your product.

What you get from CS: What customers say to the people managing their accounts. What you need: What customers actually experience using your product and whether it’s creating real value.

Product conversations are filtered to validate roadmap decisions. Product managers are testing hypotheses. They’re often asking leading questions without meaning to: “Would this feature solve your problem?” “Is this important to you?” They’re showing prototypes and getting reactions. But customers don’t know what they want until they’re using it. And they’re biased toward features that sound good in a demo but might not matter in practice.

What you get from the product: Reactions to your product ideas. What you need: Understanding of the actual jobs customers are trying to do and whether your product helps them do those jobs.

Support conversations are filtered by what’s broken. You hear about problems, bugs, and confusion. You don’t hear about what’s working or why people chose you or what value they’re getting. Support tickets reveal pain points. They don’t tell you about value creation.

What you get from support: What’s not working. What you need: The complete picture of what works, what doesn’t, and what matters.

So the customer discovery you need to do as CEO is different. You’re not trying to close deals, manage accounts, validate features, or fix bugs. You’re trying to understand:

• Why customers bought in the first place (the real reason, not the stated reason)

• What job they hiring your product to do (the progress they’re trying to make)

• What value they’re actually getting (measured by what they’d lose if you went away)

• Why some prospects don’t buy (the real barriers, not the polite objections)

• Why customers leave (the actual problems, not the exit interview spin)

• How they’re making buying decisions (the process, criteria, alternatives considered)

• What they actually experience using your product (the reality, not the analytics)

Let’s talk about how to get this understanding.

The Mom Test: How to Ask Questions People Can’t Lie To

There’s a short, powerful book by Rob Fitzpatrick called “The Mom Test” that should be required reading for this phase of your diagnostic work. The title refers to a simple test: If you can ask your mom about your business idea and get useful feedback, you’re asking good questions. If not, you’re asking bad questions.

The problem: Most people will lie to you about your ideas. Not out of malice, but because:

• They want to be polite and supportive

• They don’t want to hurt your feelings

• They’re imagining a hypothetical future, not reflecting on real behaviour

• They don’t actually know what they want until they’re using something

• They’re telling you what they think you want to hear

So if you ask your mom, “Would you use this app?” she’ll say yes. Because she loves you and wants to encourage you. But that tells you nothing about whether the app would actually solve a problem she has.

The Mom Test principles:

1. Talk about their life, not your idea

Don’t pitch your product or explain your vision. Ask about their world. What problems do they face? How do they currently solve them? What’s frustrating about those solutions?

Bad questions (about your idea):

• “Do you think this product is a good idea?”

• “Would you use a tool that does X?”

• “How much would you pay for this?”

• “What features would you want?”

Good questions (about their life):

• “Tell me about the last time you ran into [problem]. What happened?”

• “How are you solving this today? Walk me through your current process.”

• “What’s the most frustrating part of [your workflow]?”

• “When did you first realise this was a problem worth solving?”

2. Ask about specific past behaviours, not hypothetical futures

People are terrible at predicting what they’ll do. They’re pretty good at describing what they have done. Past behaviour is evidence. Future intent is guessing.

Bad questions (hypothetical):

• “Would you switch to our product?”

• “If we built this feature, would you use it?”

• “How important is this to you?”

Good questions (specific past):

• “Tell me about the last three vendors you evaluated. How did you make the decision?”

• “When was the last time you used [feature]? What were you trying to accomplish?”

• “What did you do when [problem] came up last week?”

3. Talk less, listen more

If you’re doing most of the talking, you’re not learning. Your job is to ask good questions and then shut up. Let uncomfortable silences sit. Let people think. Don’t fill gaps with explanations or ideas.

When someone says something interesting, follow up:

• “That’s interesting—tell me more about that.”

• “Can you give me a specific example?”

• “What happened next?”

• “How did that make you feel?”

Your goal is to understand their world, not to explain yours.

Who to Talk To: Three Critical Customer Types

You can’t talk to every customer, so you need to be strategic about who you talk to. Three types of customers will give you the most valuable insights:

Type 1: Your Best Customers (5-7 conversations)

These are customers who:

• Get tremendous value from your product (they’d be in trouble if you went away)

• Have renewed multiple times or expanded significantly

• Refer other customers or advocate for you publicly

• Use your product heavily and successfully

What you’re trying to understand:

• What problem were they actually trying to solve when they bought? (Not what they said in the sales process, but the real pain they were feeling)

• Why did they choose you over alternatives? (The actual decision criteria, not the ones they put in RFP response scores)

• What would they lose if your product went away? (This tells you your real value proposition)

• How does your product fit into their broader workflow? (The context of use)

• What makes them successful with your product when others struggle? (This might tell you about your true ICP)

Sample questions:

• “Take me back to when you first started looking for a solution. What triggered that? What was going on in your business?”

• “What were you using before? Why did that stop working?”

• “Walk me through your evaluation process. Who was involved? What did you look at? How did you make the decision?”

• “If we went away tomorrow, what would happen? How would that affect your business?”

• “What are you able to do now that you couldn’t do before? What’s different?”

What you’re listening for:

The job they’re hiring your product to do. Customers will often describe this in their own words if you listen. “We needed to stop losing deals because we couldn’t track what sales were doing” is very different from “We needed a CRM.” The first describes the real job. The second describes the category.

The alternatives they considered (and why they rejected them). This reveals what actually differentiated you in their mind. Often it’s not what you think. You might think you won on features, but they’ll tell you it was implementation time or customer support or pricing transparency.

What value actually means to them. Ask about metrics or outcomes. “We closed 23% more deals in the first quarter” is a concrete value. “It helps us be more organised” is vague and probably not the real value.

Type 2: Customers Who Churned (5-7 conversations)

These are customers who left in the last 6-12 months, specifically those who chose to leave (not those who went out of business, were acquired, or faced force majeure circumstances).

Why these conversations matter:

Your team has theories about why customers churn. Those theories are usually partially wrong because:

• Exit interviews are sanitised (customers don’t want to burn bridges)

• CS teams filter what they report up (they feel responsible for retention)

• Some churn happens silently (customer stops using, doesn’t renew, never explains why)

• What gets logged as the churn reason is often a proximate cause, not the root cause

Churned customers will be more honest with the CEO, especially if you make it clear you’re not trying to win them back, you’re genuinely trying to understand what went wrong so you can improve for others.

What you’re trying to understand:

• What were they expecting that they didn’t get? (Gap between promise and delivery)

• When did they start thinking about leaving? (Was it sudden or gradual?)

• What did they switch to? (Reveals your actual competition and what they value)

• What would have kept them? (Might reveal fixable problems)

• What’s been their experience since leaving? (Validates whether leaving solved their problem)

Sample questions:

• “Take me back to when you first started thinking about leaving. What was happening? What triggered that?”

• “What were you expecting when you first bought that that didn’t happen?”

• “Were there moments when you almost stayed? What changed?”

• “What did you switch to? How’s that been different?”

• “If we could go back in time, what would have needed to be different for you to stay?”

What you’re listening for:

Whether the problem was fixable. Some churn is legitimate—you’re not the right fit for what they need. But some churn is preventable—you’re not delivering on what you promised or you’re missing things that matter.

Patterns across multiple churned customers. If one person says, “Onboarding was confusing,” that might be an isolated case. If five people mention it, that’s a real problem.

Whether they’re succeeding with the alternative. If they switched to a competitor and are thriving, you need to understand why that competitor works better for them. If they switched and are still struggling, the problem might not have been your product; it might have been something else.

Practical tip on getting these conversations:

Churned customers often won’t respond to your CS team asking for feedback. But many will respond to a direct, personal note from the CEO:

“Hi [Name], I’m [Your Name], the new CEO at [Company]. I know you were a customer but chose not to renew. I’m not reaching out to try to win you back—I’m genuinely trying to understand what we got wrong so we can improve for other customers. Would you be willing to give me 30 minutes to help me learn? I’d really appreciate your candour.”

Type 3: Prospects Who Chose Competitors (5-7 conversations)

These are the hardest conversations to get, but incredibly valuable. You want to talk to prospects who evaluated you in the last 6-12 months and chose a competitor instead.

Why these conversations matter:

Your sales team reports why deals are lost. The CRM shows closed-lost reasons: “Price too high,” “Timing not right,” “Went with incumbent,” “Chose competitor X.” But these are usually surface-level or polite explanations.

The prospect who chose your competitor knows exactly why. They did the evaluation. They experienced your sales process and theirs. They made the decision. And now that they’ve chosen, they have no reason to be anything but honest with you.

What you’re trying to understand:

• What was their evaluation process? (Who was involved, what criteria mattered, how did they decide?)

• How did you get into the evaluation? (Why did they consider you?)

• How did you compare to alternatives? (Where did you shine? Where did you fall short?)

• What almost made them choose you? (Where were you close?)

• What ultimately drove the decision to the competitor? (The real reason, not the polite one)

• How’s it going with the choice they made? (Are they happy with the decision?)

Sample questions:

• “Walk me through your evaluation. When did you start looking? What triggered that?”

• “How did you find out about us? What made you include us in your evaluation?”

• “Who else did you look at? How did you narrow it down?”

• “What were the most important factors in your decision?”

• “Where did we come across strong? Where did we fall short?”

• “What almost made you choose us?”

• “How has it been with [competitor]? Are they delivering what you needed?”

What you’re listening for:

Where you’re actually competitive. Sometimes you think you’re losing on price, but you’re actually losing on ease of implementation, change management support or integration capabilities.

Where your positioning doesn’t match their perception. You might position yourself as “enterprise-grade”, but they perceived you as “too complex.” You might position yourself as “innovative”, but they perceived you as “unproven.” The gap between your intended message and the one received is important.

What buying criteria actually mattered. You might be investing heavily in features they never evaluated. Or you might be weak on something they cared deeply about that never made it into your competitive analysis.

Practical tip on getting these conversations:

Recently closed-lost prospects often will talk to a new CEO out of curiosity or courtesy:

“Hi [Name], I’m [Your Name], the new CEO at [Company]. I know you evaluated us recently and chose [Competitor]. I’m not reaching out to reopen that decision—I’m trying to understand where we fell short so we can improve. Would you be willing to give me 20 minutes to help me understand your evaluation? I’d really appreciate the insights.”

Many will say yes, especially if you’re clear you’re not pitching.

How to Conduct Customer Discovery Conversations

Let’s get tactical about how to actually run these conversations so you get real insight instead of polite pleasantries.

Preparation (15 minutes before each conversation):

Review what you know about this customer/prospect:

• What they bought or evaluated

• When they became a customer or when the evaluation happened

• Any notes from sales, CS, support (but don’t let these bias you—you’re looking for their story)

• Their company, role, industry (basic context so you can speak intelligently)

Prepare 3-5 open-ended starting questions, but be ready to abandon them if the conversation takes an interesting turn. You’re not doing a survey. You’re having a conversation to understand their experience.

Structure (30-45 minutes):

Opening (5 minutes): Set the stage. Explain who you are, why you’re reaching out, and what you’re trying to learn.

“Thanks for taking the time. I’m [X], the new CEO at [Company]. I’m spending my first few months listening and learning, trying to understand what we’re doing well and where we’re falling short. Nothing you share will be used for sales follow-up or held against anyone. I’m genuinely just trying to understand your experience. Does that make sense?”

Get their permission to record if you want to (most people will say yes if you’re clear about the purpose). If they say no, that’s fine, just take light notes.

Context Setting (5-10 minutes): Start broad. Get them talking about their world, not your product yet.

“Tell me a bit about your role and what you’re focused on.” “What are the biggest challenges you’re dealing with right now?”

You’re building rapport and understanding their context. Your product exists in a larger reality for them. You need to understand that reality.

The Story (20-30 minutes): Now, go deep into their experience with your product/evaluation. This is where you use Mom Test principles.

For best customers: “Take me back to when you first started looking for a solution like ours. What was going on? What triggered that search?”

Then follow the story chronologically:

• What were you doing before?

• What stopped working about that?

• How did you evaluate alternatives?

• Why did you choose us?

• What’s been your experience since?

• What value are you getting?

• What would you lose if we went away?

For churned customers: “Take me back to when you first became a customer. What problem were you trying to solve?”

Then follow through to the churn:

• What were you expecting?

• When did you start thinking about leaving?

• What happened?

• What did you switch to?

• How’s that been different?

For lost prospects: “Walk me through your evaluation. When did it start? Why?”

Then follow their buying process:

• How did you find vendors?

• Who was involved?

• What criteria mattered?

• How did you make the decision?

Throughout, use follow-up questions:

• “Tell me more about that.”

• “Can you give me a specific example?”

• “What did you do next?”

• “How did that make you feel?”

• “What would have needed to be different?”

Pay attention to emotion: When someone gets animated (positive or negative), that’s a signal. That topic matters to them. Go deeper into it.

When someone hedges or becomes vague, that’s also a signal. They’re uncomfortable or unsure. Probe gently: “It sounds like there’s more to that story. What am I missing?”

Closing (5 minutes): Thank them. Ask if there’s anything else they think you should know. Ask if you can follow up if questions come up.

Don’t pitch. Don’t explain what you’re planning to do. Don’t defend your product or company. Just thank them and end.

Post-Conversation (15 minutes): Immediately after, write up your notes while it’s fresh:

• Key insights that surprised you

• Quotes that were particularly revealing

• Themes that connect to other conversations

• Follow-up questions that emerged

• Your gut reactions and hypotheses

Don’t wait. You’ll forget important details.

Jobs-to-Be-Done Framework: Understanding the Real Job

There’s another powerful framework that deserves deep attention here: Jobs-to-Be-Done (JTBD), developed by Clayton Christensen and refined by Bob Moesta and others.

The Core Insight:

People don’t buy products. They “hire” products to do a job. They’re trying to make progress in their life or work. Understanding that job, not the surface-level feature need, but the deeper progress they’re trying to make, tells you what you’re really competing with and what value really means.

The famous example: A fast-food chain trying to improve milkshake sales studied when and why people bought milkshakes. They discovered that 40% of milkshakes were purchased early morning by commuters buying nothing else.

The traditional analysis would be: “Milkshake customers want thick, tasty milkshakes.” But when they interviewed these morning customers, the job became clear: “I have a long, boring commute and I need something to keep me occupied. I’m not hungry yet, but I will be by 10 am. I want something I can eat with one hand while driving that will last the whole commute.”

The milkshake was being hired to do a job. And it was competing with bananas (too quick to eat, doesn’t last), bagels (crumbly, hands get dirty), Snickers bars (feels like breakfast failure), and boring commutes (nothing to do).

Once you understand the job, you understand what “improvement” means. Making the milkshake thicker wasn’t the answer—making it last longer and be easier to consume while driving was.

Applying JTBD to Your Discovery:

In your customer conversations, listen for the job beneath the features:

Surface level: “We needed a CRM.” Deeper job: “We needed to stop losing deals because sales and marketing weren’t aligned and opportunities were falling through the cracks.”

Surface level: “We needed project management software.” Deeper job: “We needed to prove to clients that we were organised and on top of things so they’d stop micromanaging us.”

Surface level: “We needed analytics.” Deeper job: “We needed to win arguments with executives by having data instead of opinions.”

The job reveals:

• What you’re really competing with (not other CRMs, but spreadsheets, emails, and memory)

• What value actually means (not features, but the progress they’re making)

• What you need to be good at (not comprehensive functionality, but solving that specific job really well)

JTBD Interview Questions:

These questions help you uncover the job:

“What were you doing before you had this problem?”

• Reveals their previous state, the status quo they were leaving

“When did you first think ‘I need to solve this’? What changed?”

• Reveals the trigger, the moment progress became urgent

“What did you try before us? Why didn’t that work?”

• Reveals the competition (often surprising—not just other products)

“What almost stopped you from buying?”

• Reveals the anxieties and forces holding them back

“What would you tell someone else in your situation about why this matters?”

• Reveals the job in their own words

User Testing and Observation: Watching Reality

Beyond interviews, if you have a product people use, you need to watch people use it. Not your team. Not power users. Real users, especially:

• New users going through onboarding

• Average users doing everyday tasks

• Struggling users who aren’t getting value

Why observation matters:

People can’t always articulate what’s wrong. They’ll say “it’s fine” while clearly frustrated. They’ll tell you they love a feature they never use. They’ll request features to solve problems that are actually caused by confusing UX.

But when you watch them use your product, you see reality. You see:

• Where they get confused (clicking the wrong thing repeatedly)

• Where they create workarounds (using another tool to accomplish something they think your product should do)

• Where they delight (unexpected “oh that’s nice” moments)

• Where they give up (abandoning a task partway through)

• What they ignore (features you invested in that they never touch)

Two approaches:

Formal User Testing: Set up sessions where you give users tasks and watch them try to accomplish those tasks. “You need to [do specific thing]. Try to do that and think out loud as you go.”

You’re not helping them. You’re not explaining. You’re watching where they struggle.

You can do this in person, over video call, or using tools like UserTesting.com that recruit participants and record sessions.

Informal Observation: Sit with actual customers while they do their real work. Not a demo. Not a training session. Their actual daily usage.

“I’d love to just watch you work for an hour. I won’t interrupt. I’m just trying to understand how people actually use the product in practice.”

You’ll see things your analytics don’t show you. Analytics tell you what buttons people clicked. Observation tells you why, and more importantly, tells you what they’re trying to accomplish and whether they’re succeeding.

What to look for:

Confusion signals:

• Multiple clicks trying to find something

• Reading tooltips or help documentation repeatedly

• Pausing and looking around (lost)

• Backtracking repeatedly

• Asking “where is…?” out loud

Workaround signals:

• Switching to another tool mid-task

• Using spreadsheets alongside your product

• Copy-pasting data between places

• Manual processes for things that seem like they should be automated

• Using features in unexpected ways

Value signals:

• Efficient, confident usage (they’ve internalized how it works)

• “Nice” or satisfaction sounds

• Showing your product to colleagues

• Creating shortcuts or bookmarks

• Citing specific metrics or outcomes

Abandonment signals:

• Giving up mid-task

• “This is taking too long”

• Going back to old method

• Visible frustration (sighs, tense body language)

Synthesising Customer Insights

After 15-20 customer conversations and several hours of observation, you’ll have a lot of information. Now you need to make sense of it.

Create a Synthesis Document:

Organise insights by theme, not by person. You want patterns across customers, not individual stories.

Themes might include:

• Why they bought (the actual job, in their words)

• What value do they get (specific, measurable if possible)

• What they expected vs. what they got (gaps)

• What almost made them not buy / what almost made them leave

• How they use the product (workflows, integrations, frequency)

• What frustrates them (pain points, workarounds)

• How they made the buying decision (process, criteria, alternatives)

• What they’d change (not feature requests, but problems to solve)

For each theme, note:

• How many people mentioned it (frequency = importance)

• Who mentioned it (customer type, industry, size—patterns matter)

• Specific quotes that illustrate it (evidence)

• What this suggests about your product, positioning, or strategy

Test Your Themes Against Internal Perception:

Now compare what you learned externally to what you heard internally:

Where they align: Your team was right. Protect this. Build on it.

Where they diverge: This is the gold. Your team thinks X, but customers experience Y. This gap is where your highest-leverage insights live.

Examples:

• Team thinks you win on features. Customers say they chose you for implementation speed.

• The team thinks customers churn because of missing features. Customers say they churn because onboarding was confusing and they never got value.

• The team thinks you lose to competitor A on price. Customers say you lose on ease of use.

• The team thinks positioning is clear. Customers describe you in completely different terms.

Develop Point of View:

Based on this research, you should be able to articulate:

• What job customers are really hiring you to do

• What your actual value proposition is (from their perspective)

• Why customers actually choose you vs. competitors

• Why customers leave and what would keep them

• Where product gaps exist that actually matter

• How buying decisions really happen in your market

This becomes part of your diagnostic synthesis.

PART 2: COMPETITOR RESEARCH

Why Your Team’s Competitive View Is Limited

Your team tracks competitors. They monitor competitor websites. They attend competitor webinars. They review competitor product changes. They read win/loss reports. They know who you compete with and what features they have.

But here’s what they don’t know with confidence:

What it’s actually like to be a customer of your competitors. Not what the website says. Not what the demo shows. What the actual experience is, signing up, onboarding, using the product daily, getting support, and paying for it.

Why prospects choose competitors. Your team knows what prospects say when they choose a competitor: “Better pricing,” “More features,” “Better fit.” But these are often incomplete or polite explanations. The real reasons might be different.

How competitors position themselves to buyers. Your team sees the public marketing. They don’t see the sales conversations, the proposals, the objection handling, or the proof points competitors use.

What users really think about competitors. Not reviewer ratings (often gamed or biased) but the detailed experiences of people actually using competitive products daily.

So your competitor research needs to go beyond tracking product features and monitoring press releases. You need to experience competitive reality the way your customers experience it.

Try and Buy: Becoming a Competitive User

The single most valuable thing you can do is become a user of competitive products. Not read about them. Actually use them. Go through their entire user journey.

For Software Products

Most competitors have free trials, freemium tiers, or low-cost entry plans. Sign up. Use a personal email to avoid getting recognised.

Your Experience Journey

1. Discovery and Sign-Up (30 minutes)

• How did you find them? (Search, ad, referral—note what discovery path feels natural)

• What does their website communicate? (Value prop, use cases, social proof)

• How easy is it to understand what they do?

• What does the sign-up process feel like? (Friction, fields required, trust signals)

• What happens immediately after signing up?

2. Onboarding (1-2 hours)

• What’s the first-run experience?

• Do they have a tutorial or guided tour?

• How long until you can accomplish something meaningful?

• What data or setup do they require?

• Do they offer templates or examples?

• When do you first experience value?

• Where do you get confused?

3. Core Product Use (3-5 hours over several sessions)

Pick 3-4 realistic tasks you’d want to accomplish and try to do them:

• Is it intuitive, or do you need help?

• What’s easier than your product?

• What’s harder than your product?

• What makes you say “Oh, that’s nice”?

• What makes you frustrated?

• What can they do that you can’t?

• What can you do that they can’t?

• Are there surprising capabilities or limitations?

4. Ongoing Engagement (1-2 weeks)

• What emails do they send?

• How do they try to engage you?

• Do they offer help/support?

• What’s their in-app messaging like?

• How do they drive you toward paid conversion?

• What notifications or prompts do you get?

5. Pricing and Upgrading (30 minutes)

• How transparent is pricing?

• What triggers the paywall?

• What’s the pricing page experience?

• What’s included at each tier?

• How do they handle objections?

• What payment options exist?

• Can you self-serve or do you need sales?

6. Support and Help Resources (30 minutes)

• How easy is it to get help?

• What’s the quality of documentation?

• Is there a community or forum?

• Do they have chat support?

• How responsive are they?

• What’s the support experience like?

Document Your Experience

Create a structured competitor analysis document for each major competitor:

Product Experience:

• Strengths (what they do better than you)

• Weaknesses (where they fall short)

• Unique capabilities (things you don’t have)

• Missing capabilities (things you have that they don’t)

User Experience:

• Onboarding quality (how quickly you got to value)

• Ease of use (learning curve, intuitiveness)

• Design quality (aesthetics, polish)

• Performance (speed, reliability)

Go-to-Market:

• Positioning (how they describe themselves)

• Value proposition (what they emphasise)

• Pricing (structure, levels, transparency)

• Sales approach (self-serve, sales-assist, enterprise)

Your Reaction:

• What surprised you?

• What would you steal if you could?

• What are they doing wrong that you should avoid?

• Where are they vulnerable?

• Where are you vulnerable?

Do This for Top 3 Competitors

You don’t need to try every competitor. Focus on the three you encounter most often in deals. This will take you 15-20 hours total across all three. That’s a significant investment, but it’s the best competitor research you can do.

For Non-Software Products:

If your product isn’t software, if it’s a physical product, a service, or something else, you still need direct experience with competitors.

Buy their product. Use their service. Go through their customer journey. Experience what customers experience.

Take photos. Document the unboxing, the setup, the usage. What’s their packaging like? What are the instructions like? How does it work? What breaks? What delights?

The principle is the same: Don’t rely on secondhand information. Experience competition directly.

Mystery Shopping

Beyond using the product, go through the buying process. Experience what prospects experience when evaluating competitors.

The Process:

1. Fill Out Their Contact Form / Request Demo. Use a personal email, not your company domain. Represent yourself as a legitimate prospect (which you are—you’re evaluating their product).

2. Take the Sales Call. Experience their discovery process:

• What questions do they ask?

• How do they position their product?

• What differentiators do they emphasise?

• What competitive alternatives do they acknowledge?

• How do they handle objections?

• What proof points do they use? (Case studies, metrics, social proof)

• What’s their demo strategy? (Show everything? Focus on key capabilities?)

• How do they price and package?

3. Review Their Proposal. If they send a proposal, analyse it:

• How do they structure it?

• What language do they use?

• What ROI do they promise?

• What implementation approach do they propose?

• What are their terms and conditions?

4. Experience Their Follow-Up. What happens after the initial call?

• How do they follow up?

• What resources do they send?

• How persistent are they?

• Do they involve others (executives, engineers)?

• How do they close?

What You’re Learning:

You’re seeing what prospects see when they evaluate your category. You’re experiencing competitive positioning from the buyer side, not the losing side.

Your sales team reports competitive dynamics from their perspective. This shows you the other side. Both matter.

Competitive Sales Intelligence

• What does their sales process reveal about their strategy?

• Where do they spend time in the conversation?

• What customer problems do they focus on?

• How do they differentiate from you (and do they even mention you)?

• What seems to work in their approach?

• What seems weak or unconvincing?

• How professional/polished is their sales operation?

User Reviews and Community Intelligence

Beyond first-hand experience, there’s a wealth of intelligence in user reviews and community discussions.

Where to Look

Review Platforms:

• G2 – B2B software reviews

• Capterra – Software marketplace reviews

• TrustRadius – Detailed B2B reviews

• Amazon – Physical products

• Yelp / Google Reviews – Local services

• App Store / Play Store – Mobile apps

Community Platforms

• Reddit – Subreddits for your industry/category

• Industry Slack channels

• LinkedIn Groups (though often low signal)

• Specialised forums for your vertical

• Stack Overflow / technical communities if relevant

• Product Hunt – For newer products

What to Look For in Reviews

Don’t focus on ratings. Ratings are often manipulated or biased. A 4.5-star product might be better than a 4.8-star product depending on whose rating and why.

Focus on detailed reviews. Read the written reviews, especially:

Critical Reviews (3-star and below)

• What specifically frustrated them?

• What didn’t work as expected?

• What did they switch to?

• Are there patterns across multiple critical reviews?

Enthusiastic Reviews (5-star)

• What specific value did they get?

• What use case are they solving?

• What language do they use to describe value?

• What alternatives did they come from?

Feature-Specific Feedback

• What features get praised repeatedly?

• What features get complained about?

• What’s missing that people want?

• What integrations matter?

Customer Service Feedback

• How responsive is support?

• How helpful is implementation?

• How do they handle problems?

ROI and Value Discussions

• Do people quantify value? (“Saved 10 hours a week”)

• How long to get value? (“Took 3 months to see results”)

• What price points cause hesitation?

Patterns Across Reviews

Read 30-50 reviews per major competitor. You’re looking for themes:

• 5+ people mention the same strength = real strength

• 5+ people mention the same weakness = real weakness

• People describe similar use cases = their core market

• People from certain industries/company sizes rate higher = their ICP

Community Intelligence

In Reddit threads, Slack channels, and forums, you find unfiltered discussions. People aare sking for recommendations. People are complaining about their tools. People sharing what works.

Search for your category:

• “What’s the best [project management tool] for [use case]?”

• “Anyone else frustrated with [competitor]?”

• “Thinking of switching from [tool A] to [tool B]—thoughts?”

You’ll see:

• What people actually care about when choosing tools

• What pain points are universal in your category

• How people describe their needs (in their language, not vendor language)

• What alternatives they consider together (your actual competitive set)

• Honest pros/cons from people who have no incentive to be polite

Document Patterns

Create a competitive intelligence summary:

For each major competitor:

• Common strengths (what users consistently praise)

• Common weaknesses (what users consistently complain about)

• Primary use cases (what jobs they’re really hired for)

• Ideal customer profile (who rates them highly)

• Pricing perception (is it worth the cost)

• Competitive vulnerabilities (where they’re weak and you could win)

Synthesising Competitive Intelligence

After trying competitors, mystery shopping, and analysing reviews, synthesise what you learned:

Competitive Landscape Map

Create a simple but clear map of your competitive landscape:

Who are your real competitors? Not just direct product competitors, but alternatives customers actually consider:

• Direct competitors (same product category)

• Partial competitors (solve the same job, different approach)

• Substitute products (different category, same job)

• Status quo / “do nothing” (what they use if they don’t buy anything)

How do you compare? Be honest:

• Where are you legitimately better? (And can you prove it?)

• Where are you legitimately worse? (And does it matter?)

• Where is the perception vs. reality?

• Where are you competing on dimensions that don’t matter to buyers?

Competitive Positioning Reality

Compare your intended positioning to how you’re actually perceived:

What you say you are: [Your positioning statement] 

What competitors say you are: [How they describe you in competitive situations] 

What customers say you are: [How they describe you in their own words] 

What makes you different (really): [The actual differentiation customers experience]

Gaps reveal positioning problems. If you think you’re “enterprise-grade” but customers perceive you as “too complex,” you have a communication problem or a product problem.

Strategic Implications

Based on competitive research, answer:

1. Where should you compete?

   • What customer segments are you actually strong in?

   • Where are competitors vulnerable?

   • Where are emerging opportunities?

2. Where should you NOT compete?

   • Where are competitors too strong?

   • Where don’t you have real differentiation?

   • Where would it require too much investment to compete?

3. What needs to change?

   • Product gaps that actually matter in competitive situations

   • Positioning adjustments based on real customer language

   • Sales enablement based on what actually works in competitive deals

   • Pricing or packaging changes based on competitive dynamics

4. What should you protect?

   • Strengths that customers value and competitors don’t match

   • Unique capabilities that create switching costs

   • Market positions where you have a defensible advantage

PART 3: MARKET RESEARCH AND DESK RESEARCH

Understanding Market Context and Trends

Customer discovery tells you what individual customers experience. Competitor research tells you the competitive dynamics. But you also need to understand the broader market context: What’s happening in your industry? What trends are affecting buying behaviour? What do benchmarks tell you about your performance? Where is the market heading?

This is desk research, synthesising published information, reports, and data to ground your understanding in market reality rather than assumption.

Industry Reports and Analyst Research

There’s an entire ecosystem of people studying your market: industry analysts, research firms, consulting companies, trade associations. They publish reports. Some are free, many are expensive, but they often contain data and perspectives you don’t have internally.

For B2B Software Companies

Gartner:

• Magic Quadrants (vendor rankings in specific categories)

• Market Guides (emerging categories)

• Hype Cycles (technology maturity)

• Market forecasts and sizing

• Buyer surveys and trends

Forrester:

• Wave Reports (vendor evaluations)

• Market forecasts

• Buyer journey research

• Technology adoption patterns

IDC:

• Market sizing and forecasts

• Competitive landscape analysis

• Technology spending trends

What These Reports Tell You

Even if you’re too small to be mentioned in analyst reports, the reports tell you:

• What buyers are looking for (evaluation criteria from buyer surveys)

• What categories are growing (market trends and forecasts)

• What features are becoming table-stakes vs. differentiation

• What the leading vendors are emphasising

• What emerging needs are creating new categories

• How enterprise vs. mid-market vs. SMB segments differ

Accessing Analyst Research

Full analyst reports are expensive (often $1,500-$5,000 per report). But:

• Summaries are often freely available

• Your investors might have access and share relevant reports

• Industry associations sometimes provide member access

• Vendors featured in reports often get copies to share

• Older reports (1-2 years old) often become freely available

For Other Industries

Trade Associations: Every industry has associations that publish research:

• State of the industry reports

• Member surveys

• Trend analyses

• Regulatory updates

• Conference proceedings

Consulting Firm Research: McKinsey, BCG, Deloitte, PwC, and others publish industry-specific research:

• Industry outlook reports

• Digital transformation studies

• Consumer/buyer behaviour research

• Market disruption analyses

Much of this is free and publicly available on their websites.

Academic Research: Business schools publish research on industry dynamics:

• Harvard Business Review

• MIT Sloan Management Review

• Stanford Business School working papers

Less tactical than analyst reports, but often deeper strategic insights.

Benchmark Data and Performance Comparisons

You need to understand how you compare to similar companies. Your team has views on what’s “normal” for metrics like growth rate, sales efficiency, churn rate, and deal size. Those views might be wrong or anchored to your early days when you were different.

Key Benchmarks to Find

For your business model (SaaS, marketplace, e-commerce, etc.):

• Growth rates by revenue stage

• Sales efficiency (CAC, payback period, magic number)

• Customer metrics (churn, NRR, expansion rate)

• Sales metrics (win rate, sales cycle length, ASP)

• Operational metrics (burn multiple, rule of 40)

• Team metrics (revenue per employee, sales rep productivity)

Where to Find Benchmarks

Publicly Available Reports

• OpenView’s SaaS Benchmarks Report – Free, comprehensive, updated annually

• SaaStr’s Annual Survey – Free, crowd-sourced data from thousands of SaaS companies

• Battery Ventures’ Software Metrics Report – Free benchmarking data

• KeyBanc’s SaaS Survey – Detailed metrics by company stage

• Bessemer Cloud Index – Public company metrics

Paid Services

• ChartMogul – Aggregated SaaS metrics data

• Subscript – SaaS benchmarking platform

• Mosaic – Strategic finance and benchmarking

Your Investors: If you have VC investors, they can review company portfolios and share (anonymised) benchmark data.

Peer Groups: CEO peer groups like Pavilion, Vistage, or YPO often do member surveys and share aggregated benchmarks.

What Benchmarks Tell You

Let’s say you think your 15% annual growth is “not great but okay.” But benchmarks show companies at your stage typically grow 30-50%. Now you know your growth problem is worse than you thought.

Or you think your 5% monthly churn is a huge problem. But benchmarks show that’s actually below average for your segment. Maybe churn isn’t your biggest issue.

Benchmarks recalibrate your sense of what’s normal and what’s urgent. They help you:

• Set realistic goals (what’s actually achievable at your stage)

• Identify performance gaps (where you’re significantly below norms)

• Understand tradeoffs (high growth usually means high burn)

• Make investment decisions (where to focus scarce resources)

Don’t Over-Index on Benchmarks

Benchmarks are useful context, not absolute truth. You might have good reasons to be different:

• Different market dynamics

• Different business model nuances

• Different strategic choices

But if you’re significantly different from benchmarks, you should know why. If you don’t know why, that’s a signal you might have a problem you’re not seeing.

Funding and Market Activity Tracking

Understanding who’s raising money, who’s getting acquired, and what strategic moves competitors are making reveals market momentum and where competition will intensify.

What to Track

Funding Activity:

• Who’s raising? (Companies in your space or adjacent spaces)

• How much? (Size tells you their ambition and runway)

• Who’s investing? (Tier of investors signals market validation)

• What are they saying they’ll do with the money? (Hiring plans, expansion plans, product development)

M&A Activity

• Who’s being acquired? (And by whom?)

• For how much? (Valuation multiples tell you market appetite)

• Why? (Acquirer’s strategic rationale)

• What happens post-acquisition? (Integration success/failure)

Strategic Moves

• Product launches (new capabilities, new markets)

• Go-to-market changes (new segments, new regions)

• Partnership announcements

• Leadership changes (especially CEO, CRO, CPO)

Where to Track This

Crunchbase:

• Free tier shows funding announcements

• Paid tier shows more detail (investors, amounts, company data)

• Search by industry/category

PitchBook

• Comprehensive funding and M&A data

• Expensive but very complete

• Your investors might have access

CB Insights

• Market intelligence and trend analysis

• Tech company tracking

• Free newsletter with key deals

TechCrunch / Industry Publications

• Breaking news on funding and M&A

• Company announcements

• Founder interviews

LinkedIn

• Follow competitors

• Track their hiring (rapid growth signals they raised)

• Executive moves

• Company updates

What This Tells You

Funding creates competitive pressure. A competitor that just raised 20M will:

• Hire aggressively (competing for talent)

• Spend on marketing (increasing visibility)

• Undercut on price if needed (they have runway)

• Accelerate product development

• Expand into new markets

You need to know who just got fresh capital and what they’re likely to do with it.

M&A signals market consolidation. If several small competitors are being acquired:

• Market might be maturing (time to consolidate)

• Strategic buyers see value in your space (validation)

• You might be an acquisition target or an acquirer

• You need sufficient scale to remain independent

Strategic moves signal competitive direction. If competitors are:

• Moving upmarket, that might open opportunities downmarket for you

• Adding specific capabilities that might become table-stakes

• Entering new geographies, you need to decide whether to follow or defend your base

Regulatory and Economic Context

Don’t ignore macro forces. Even if you can’t control them, you need to understand them and adapt.

Regulatory Changes

Is anything changing in regulation that affects:

• Your ability to operate (licensing, compliance)

• Your customers’ buying behaviour (mandates, restrictions)

• Your competitive dynamics (new entrants, changing barriers)

• Your product requirements (data privacy, accessibility)

Examples:

• GDPR changed how software handles data (cost and complexity for global products)

• Healthcare regulations affect buying process (longer sales cycles, different requirements)

• Financial regulations create opportunities (fintech) and constraints (compliance burden)

Economic Context

What’s happening economically that affects:

• Buying behaviour (recession reduces budgets, changes priorities)

• Growth expectations (investors adjust what they fund based on macro conditions)

• Competition (downturns cause competitors to get aggressive on price)

• Talent availability (recession makes hiring easier but might reduce revenue)

You’re not an economist, but you should understand:

• Is your market generally growing or declining?

• Are buyers expanding or contracting budgets?

• What’s the funding environment? (Affects you and competitors)

• What consumer/business trends are tailwinds or headwinds?

Technology Trends

What technology shifts are affecting your market:

• Is AI making some capabilities commoditised or table-stakes?

• Are new platforms creating new opportunities or threats?

• Are buyer expectations changing in line with consumer tech trends?

Example: If AI makes certain features trivial to build, you can’t differentiate on those features anymore. You need to find new differentiation or move up the value chain.

Synthesising Market Intelligence

After all this desk research, synthesise into a clear point of view:

Market Context Document

Market Dynamics:

• Is our market growing, flat, or declining?

• What’s driving growth or decline?

• What segments are strongest/weakest?

• Where is momentum shifting?

Competitive Landscape

• Who’s gaining share? Who’s losing?

• Where is investment flowing?

• What consolidation is happening?

• What new entrants are emerging?

Our Position

• How do we compare to benchmarks?

• Where are we strong relative to market?

• Where are we weak relative to market?

• What’s our trajectory vs. market trajectory?

Forces Shaping Next 12-24 Months

• Regulatory changes we need to respond to

• Economic factors affecting buying behavior

• Technology trends we need to leverage or adapt to

• Competitive moves we need to counter or exploit

Strategic Implications

• Should we accelerate or be more conservative?

• Where should we focus resources?

• What threats need immediate attention?

• What opportunities should we pursue?

This market context shapes everything, your strategy, your roadmap, your GTM approach, your fundraising story.

PART 4: AI-POWERED DEEP RESEARCH

The New Research Capability

Here’s a relatively new capability that can dramatically accelerate your research: AI-powered deep research. We’re talking about AI systems that can:

• Search across many sources simultaneously

• Synthesise information that would take an analyst days to compile

• Surface patterns and connections you might miss

• Provide citations so you can verify and go deeper

This isn’t replacing the customer conversations or hands-on competitor research. But it’s enormously useful for:

• Literature review (what have experts written about this problem?)

• Landscape mapping (who are all the players in this space?)

• Best practice identification (what approaches have worked for others?)

• Trend analysis (what patterns exist across many data points?)

Available Tools (as of 2026):

• Perplexity Pro – AI search with citations, good for research questions

• Claude with web search – Deep synthesis with source verification

• ChatGPT with Bing/Browsing – Research across web sources

• Specialised research agents – Built for specific research tasks

The key advantage: Speed and comprehensiveness. What might take you or an analyst a week to research, reading dozens of articles, synthesising themes, and identifying patterns, AI can do in an hour or two.

How to Use AI Research Effectively

The Limitations:

First, understand what AI research can and can’t do:

AI Can:

• Scan and synthesise large volumes of text quickly

• Identify patterns across many sources

• Provide structured analysis with citations

• Surface information you might not find through a simple search

• Generate comprehensive starting points for deeper investigation

AI Cannot:

• Conduct original research or interviews

• Access information behind paywalls (usually)

• Verify the accuracy of everything it finds

• Apply strategic judgment to your specific context

• Replace the need for human analysis and decision-making

So think of AI research as a highly capable research assistant, not an oracle.

Effective Research Queries

The quality of AI research depends heavily on how you ask questions.

Bad Queries (Too Vague)

• “Tell me about competitors”

• “What’s happening in SaaS?”

• “How do I grow faster?”

These will give you generic, surface-level responses.

Good Queries (Specific and Structured)

• “Identify B2B project management tools that have raised Series B or later funding in the last 18 months. For each, summarise their positioning based on their website and recent press releases, and note their stated differentiation.”

• “What are the most common causes of growth stalls for B2B software companies in the 10M-30M revenue range? Cite specific research, case studies, or expert analysis.”

• “Analyse pricing strategies for multi-product B2B SaaS companies. What approaches do experts recommend? What case studies exist of successful pricing model changes? Cite sources.”

• “Search for user reviews of [Competitor X] on G2 and other review sites. Summarise the most common complaints mentioned by at least 5 users. What strengths are mentioned by 10+ users?”

Structure for Effective Queries

1. Be specific about what you want to know

   • Not “tell me about X” but “identify [specific things], summarise [specific aspects], analyse [specific patterns]”

2. Provide context for relevance

   • Company stage, industry, geography, timeframe

   • “For B2B SaaS companies between 20-50M revenue…”

3. Ask for citations and sources

   • “Cite specific research papers, expert articles, or case studies”

   • This allows you to verify and dive deeper

4. Request structured output

   • “Organise findings by [category/theme]”

   • “Provide a summary table showing…”

Research Applications in Your Diagnostic Phase

Application 1: Validating Internal Hypotheses

After your internal listening, you have hypotheses about why growth stalled. Use AI to research whether these patterns are common:

Query: “What does research say about common causes of stalled growth for B2B software companies? Focus on companies that grew to $15-30M and then plateaued. Cite specific studies or expert analysis.”

The AI will surface research, case studies, and expert commentary. You can then see:

• Do your hypotheses match common patterns?

• Are there causes you haven’t considered?

• What do experts say about addressing these causes?

Application 2: Expanding Competitive Understanding

After your hands-on competitor research, use AI to broaden your understanding:

Query: “Who are the emerging competitors in [your category] that have launched or raised funding in the last 12 months? For each, provide: founding year, funding stage, key positioning claims from their website, and any notable press coverage.”

This ensures you don’t miss emerging threats. Competitors that just raised $10M and are flying under your radar might be problems in 12 months.

Application 3: Best Practice Research

When you’ve identified a specific problem, research best practices:

Query: “What are best practices for improving sales cycle velocity in B2B software sales for deals 50K-200K? Focus on case studies or research from companies that successfully reduced their sales cycle. Cite specific sources.”

The AI will find relevant case studies, expert articles, and research papers. You get a comprehensive literature review in minutes, not days.

Application 4: Jobs-to-Be-Done Research

After customer interviews, you want to understand the broader job landscape:

Query: “What are the main jobs-to-be-done that customer success software helps B2B companies accomplish? Based on user reviews, case studies, and expert analysis, what underlying progress are users trying to make? Cite specific sources.”

This might reveal job dimensions you hadn’t considered or help you articulate the job more clearly.

Application 5: Market Trend Analysis

Research emerging trends that might affect your market:

Query: “What are the most significant trends in enterprise software buying behaviour over the last 18 months? Focus on changes to evaluation criteria, the composition of the buying committee, budget allocation, and decision-making processes. Cite recent surveys or research.”

You learn how buying is changing, which helps you adapt your GTM approach.

Iterative Research Process

Don’t expect perfect answers from single queries. Research iteratively:

Start Broad: “What are the main approaches to [problem] in [industry]?”

Then Narrow: “Tell me more about [specific approach mentioned]. What companies have used this successfully? What were their results?”

Then Go Deeper: “What specific tactics did [company mentioned] use to implement [approach]? What challenges did they face?”

Then, Explore Alternatives: “What criticisms exist of [approach]? What alternative approaches do experts recommend?”

Each query builds on the previous one, creating a comprehensive understanding.

Verification and Source Checking

AI research is fast but not infallible. Always:

Check Citations: Good AI tools provide source links. Click through to verify:

• Is this source reputable?

• Does it actually say what the AI claims?

• When was it published? (Older sources might be outdated)

• Is there bias or conflict of interest?

Cross-Reference Critical Claims: If an AI tells you something that would significantly impact your strategy, verify it:

• Find the original source

• Look for corroborating sources

• Check whether experts agree or disagree

Apply Judgment: AI can synthesise information, but can’t make strategic decisions for your specific context. You still need to:

• Interpret findings for your situation

• Weigh trade-offs based on your constraints

• Decide what’s relevant and what’s not

• Integrate with what you know about your organisation

Creating Research Summaries

After AI research, create summaries for your team:

Research Brief Format:

Question/Topic: [What you were researching]

Key Findings: [3-5 main insights, with citations]

Supporting Evidence: [Details, examples, data points]

Implications for Us: [What this means for your strategy/decisions]

Sources: [Full list of sources cited, with links]

Next Steps: [What additional research or validation is needed]

This becomes part of your diagnostic documentation and helps your team understand the research foundation for decisions.

SYNTHESIS: INTEGRATING INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL PERSPECTIVE

Now we come to the most important part: bringing together everything you’ve learned.

You have:

• Internal perspective from organisational listening

• Customer insights from discovery conversations

• Competitive intelligence from hands-on research

• Market context from desk research and benchmarks

• Synthesised research from AI-powered analysis

The synthesis is where you develop an accurate diagnosis.

The Integration Process

Step 1: Map Internal vs. External Views

Create a comparison document:

Topic: Why Growth Stalled

Internal View

External Reality

Gap Analysis

The sales team says we lose on price

Customers say we lose on implementation time

Misdiagnosis – not a pricing problem

Product team says customers want feature X

Customers say they bought for job Y, feature X was barely mentioned

Wrong priority – solving stated vs. real needs

Team says positioning is clear

Customers describe us in completely different terms

Communication failure – message not landing

The team thinks competitor A is the main threat

Customers don’t even consider competitor A, focus on B and C

Wrong competitive focus – fighting the wrong battle

Do this for every major theme. Where do internal and external views align? Where do they diverge?

The gaps are gold. These are your highest-leverage insights because they reveal where your organisation’s understanding of reality is wrong.

Step 2: Validate Root Causes

Your team has theories about what caused the growth stall. Test them against external evidence:

Theory: “We’re losing deals because we’re missing features X, Y, Z”

External Evidence

• Lost prospects mentioned features rarely, emphasised implementation and support

• Competitor research shows feature parity isn’t the differentiator

• Best customers barely use features X, Y, Z

Conclusion: Feature gaps aren’t the primary cause of lost deals. The real issue is buying confidence (implementation, support, perceived risk).

Theory: “Growth stalled because the market is saturated”

External Evidence

• Market research shows the category is growing 30% annually

• Competitors are growing rapidly

• Customers describe many peers who need solutions and don’t have one

Conclusion: The market isn’t saturated. We’re not capturing the growth that exists. Need to understand why.

Go through each major theory. Which ones hold up to external evidence? Which ones don’t?

Step 3: Identify the Real Problems

Based on integrated analysis, what are the actual root causes of stalled growth?

Not surface symptoms like “Sales missing quota” or “Product adoption is low.”

Root causes like:

• ICP is too broad – we’re selling to customers who can’t get value

• Positioning doesn’t match actual value – customers don’t understand what we do

• Onboarding is broken – customers never reach activation

• We’re competing on the wrong dimensions – emphasising features that don’t matter

• Sales process doesn’t match buyer journey – we’re trying to sell before they’re ready to buy

For each root cause, document:

• The evidence (what internal and external data support this)

• The impact (how this is affecting growth)

• The addressability (can we actually fix this? What would it take?)

Step 4: Prioritise Based on Impact and Addressability

You’ll identify more problems than you can solve. Prioritise based on:

Impact on Growth

• If we fixed this, how much would it move the needle?

• Is this a 5% improvement or a 50% improvement?

• Does this enable other improvements, or is it isolated?

Addressability

• Can we actually fix this with our current resources?

• How long would it take? (Quick wins vs. long-term transformation)

• Do we have the capabilities needed?

• What would we have to stop doing to work on this?

Confidence Level

• How confident are we in this diagnosis?

• Is the evidence strong or are we still uncertain?

• What would we need to validate this further before committing resources?

Use a simple 2×2 matrix:

High Impact, High Addressability → DO FIRST (Quick wins, high confidence)

High Impact, Low Addressability → STRATEGIC INITIATIVES (Longer-term, resource-intensive)

Low Impact, High Addressability → NICE TO HAVE (Do if easy, but not priorities)

Low Impact, Low Addressability → IGNORE (Don’t waste time)

Step 5: Develop Point of View

Now you can articulate a clear, evidence-based point of view on:

Why Growth Stalled: [Root causes with evidence]

What We Need to Fix: [Prioritised list of addressable problems]

What We Need to Protect: [What’s working that we shouldn’t break]

Where We Should Focus: [Top 3-5 priorities for next 12 months]

What We’re Not Going to Fix: [Acknowledged problems we’re choosing not to address, and why]

This becomes your strategic narrative, the story you tell your board, your team, and yourself about what’s really going on and what you’re going to do about it.

THE COMPLETE DIAGNOSTIC PICTURE

You started with internal listening. Your team told you their perception of reality, why growth stalled, where problems exist, and what needs to change.

Then you added an external perspective:

• Customers told you what they actually experience and value

• Competitors showed you the market reality through direct use

• Market research gave you context and benchmarks

• AI research helped you synthesise expert knowledge quickly

Now you have something powerful: A diagnosis based on both internal perception and external reality.

You know:

• Where your team’s understanding is accurate (trust their judgment, build on it)

• Where your team’s understanding is off (correct course, educate)

• What customers actually value vs. what you think they value

• How competitors actually stack up vs. what you assume

• Where you are vs. benchmarks for companies at your stage

• What best practices exist for the problems you face

And most importantly, you know the gap between internal perception and external reality. That gap is where transformation happens.

Because you can’t fix problems you don’t accurately understand. If your team thinks you have a product problem but you actually have a positioning problem, you’ll invest in the wrong solution. If your team thinks you lose on price but you actually lose on perceived risk, you’ll make pricing changes that don’t help.

The CEOs who succeed invest time in understanding reality accurately before making big bets. They listen inside and outside. They test assumptions against evidence. They integrate multiple perspectives. They develop conviction based on data, not just opinion.

Three months of diagnostic work. Internal and external. Comprehensive but focused. Rigorous but efficient.

Then you can move to action with confidence. Because you’re not guessing about what to fix. You know.