01
Belief Audit
State the belief precisely enough to be proven wrong, from the founder’s own words, the company’s history, and its decisions.
02
Contradiction
Find the one place the belief collided with a real decision.
03
Full Commitment
Describe the company as it would be if it fought for that belief completely.
04
Product Consequences
Work out what it should build, remove, and refuse, which fights to take, and who it should be willing to lose.
05
The Design
Build it, and close with a decision memo: ship, kill, or reprice.
What philosophy does
Precision
Separates what a belief commits a company to from what merely comes along with it.
Lineage
Places the belief in its tradition, so the company knows what it has already been tested against.
Opposition
Finds the belief’s strongest opponent, which predicts the attack and the people the company will lose.
Justification
Builds the strongest honest public case for the position.
Appeal
Explains what people actually get by joining the belief.
The divergence moment
I work on companies at the moment a stated belief and a decision they can’t avoid pull in opposite directions, in public, with a real price on both sides. Companies leave that moment in one of three ways: they hold, they fold, or they sell.
The line I hold
I don’t rule on whether a belief is good. I insist it be argued at its strongest and opposed at its strongest. Laundering makes a company look like something it isn’t; this work makes the strongest honest case for what it is, then builds the company to match. If the honest case can’t be made, the company doesn’t get one.
Terms
Divergence moment
The point where a stated belief and a decision the company can’t avoid pull in opposite directions, in public, with a price on both sides.
Contradiction
A past collision between the belief and a real decision, found in research. A divergence moment is the live version.
Hold, fold, sell
The three ways out of a divergence moment: keep the belief and pay for it, drop it under pressure, or trade it away for revenue.
Borrowed controversy
Provocation bolted onto a business as advertising. It burns off.
Earned controversy
Controversy that follows from a belief the business is built on and the company will pay to hold. It compounds.
Moat and tax
What earned controversy is at once: it keeps cautious rivals out, and it costs the company something every year.
The strongest case
The most defensible honest argument for a company’s contested position.
Who leaves
The customers a fully committed belief should lose, on purpose.
Three positions
The founder’s words, the company’s decisions, and the customer’s behavior. Every belief is read from all three.
