POV Discovery

What’s happening? What’s the situation?

_{(who? what? when? where?)}

What’s the context behind this situation?

_{(what’s the story here?)}

What caused this context to happen?

_{(why is the context changing?)}

What are the implications of this?

_{(what are the negative outcomes of this context change?)}

Who is affected the most by the implications?

_{(high-pain feeling prospects: traits of prospects who experience the negative outcomes acutely)}

Who is affected the most by this AND we are a good fit for them?

_{(perfect-match prospects: these are high-pain feeling prospects who are compatible with us)}

What problem does it cause for them?

_{(how does the negative outcome prevent perfect-match prospects from achieving what they want to achieve?)}

How do they notice or experience the problem?

_{(where does the problem ‘show up’ and reveal itself in the lives of perfect-match prospects?)}

Is it a problem they understand?

_{(are they aware of it? do they understand the full implications?)}

How is this a differentiated problem?

_{(how do we think about this problem differently to everyone else?)}

Why should perfect-match prospects care?

_{(what motivates them? why should they pay attention to this?)}

What might they stand to lose?

_{(how can we trigger loss aversion?)}

What are their present perceptions toward the situation?

_{(how is the situation viewed and perceived by perfect-match prospects?)}

Why do these present perceptions exist?

_{(what stereotypes, biases, or experiences have established these perceptions?)}

How do we want them to perceive the situation?

_{(what ‘picture can we paint’ to reframe how perfect-match prospects perceive it?)}

Why do we want them to perceive the situation like that?

_{(what business objective does it support and deliver against?)}

How can we get them to perceive the situation like that?

_{(how can we enlist existing perceptions to mold a new perception?)}

What is preventing them from perceiving the situation like that?

_{(a lack of awareness? a lack of credible voices articulating it? it doesn’t ‘work’ in the mind?)}

What is a ‘fundamental truth’ they strongly agree with?

_{(confirmation bias: what is an idea about the situation that perfect-match prospects would strongly agree with?)}

Who or what is the prospects’ enemy? 

_{(what company, category, or context is causing the problem to exist?)}

What is enabling the enemy?

_{(why does the enemy exist and what is the reason behind it?)}

Who has a vested interest in maintaining the enemy? Why?

_{(competitive alternatives that are better off if the enemy goes unsolved)}

How might the enemy grow if left unchecked? 

_{(what forces enable the enemy to become worse over time?)}

Our insight

_{(what category insight have we discovered that no one else has laid claim to in the minds of perfect-match prospects?)}

Who are we? Why do we exist?

_{(sure… to make money. but, how can we uniquely add value to earn that money?)}

In what way is the category (or others) failing? 

_{(what is our unique ‘take’ on the situation that will resonate in the minds of perfect-match prospects?)}

How does the category failing guide our approach?

_{(how does it inform the way we build solutions, products, features?)}

What is our unique approach?

_{(how are we approaching building a proposition, differently?)}

Why should perfect-match prospects care about our unique approach?

_{(why is it valuable to them?)}

Why will our unique approach kill the enemy?

_{(why does our approach solve the differentiated problem we defined)}

Why now?

_{(why hasn’t this been done before?)}

Why is it urgent?

_{(why should perfect-match prospects take action now?)}

What promise do we make for our customers?

_{(if we were to make a promise to customers, what would it be?)}

Why are we credible?

_{(authority, social proof, evidence it works?)}

Why are we believable?

_{(what perceived ‘truth’ can be leveraged to make our claims believable?)}

What are our beliefs?

_{(what core principles do we follow that guide our decision making & approach?)}

What are our anti-beliefs?

_{(what goes against our beliefs and would further enable the category failing?)}

How do we want prospects to feel?

_{(what emotions do we want to trigger and associate with our POV?)}

What does a ‘perfect world’ look like to our prospects?

_{(if the prospect could snap their fingers and resolve the differentiated problem completely, what would it look like?)}

Is there a ‘white elephant’ perception?

_{(something that we aren’t mentioning, but is inhibiting prospects from taking interest in us)}

What does our vision of the future look like?

_{(go forward 10 years. how is it different, how do we fit into it, and how did we shape it that way?)}

Who are our competitive alternatives?

_{(include all alternatives – e.g. “excel” or “do nothing” or “in-house CFO” or “AI Agent” – not just companies in our category)}

What is our closest competitive alternative?

_{(plus key reasons why prospects choose to use the alternative)}

How do our competitors think about solving the problems the category exists to solve?

_{(define how competitors approach and design propositions to solve customer problems. put them into categories of approaches)}

How do our competitive alternatives fail to meet needs?

_{(what need deeply resonates with prospects, but is being underserved?)}

What do we disagree with our competitors about?

_{(what is our contrarian competitive perspective?)}

How do prospects currently perceive the category?

_{(what are the positive and negative perceptions?)}

How do we want prospects to perceive the category?

_{(what do we want to change?)}

What is our POV anchoring against?

_{(POVs can’t exist in a mental vacuum. what are we anchoring against to get noticed and understood? A company? A frustration? An insecurity?}

What other stakeholders are there in this POV? Why?

_{(not  prospects – e.g. regulators, industry bodies)}

Who influences our prospects?

_{What is their POV?}

Who disagrees with our POV? Why?

_{(e.g. competitors, industry bodies, regulators, influencers, types of prospect)}

What is the weakness in our POV that competitors will attack?

_{(is it a strategic weakness that gives us strength?)} 

Who is not a good fit for us? i.e. ‘anti-prospect’

Why?

_{(list prospects with certain attributes)}

Are there any adjacent trends or narratives which impact ours?

_{(e.g. the actions of BigTech, regulators, industry trends, tech breakthroughs, behavioral shifts)}

How can we dramatise the POV?

_{(what is going on in the world that we can point at to support our POV?)}

What is our POV as a headline?

_{(does it demand attention? does it cause tension with an existing way of doing things?)}

Anything else?

_{(other elements unique to your category or circumstance)}