Part I · Tasks 1–15 of 75
Find the Repeatable Problem
What recurring problem, buyer, outcome, and economic pattern are already visible?
The transition
The first part makes the current business visible before deciding what should become a product. It examines revenue mix, customer segments, repeated pain, sales motion, delivery economics, reusable assets, proof, rights, and transition choices.
The central question
Which recurring problem, buyer, outcome, and economic pattern are already visible in paid work?
What not to scale yet
Do not scale a new offer yet. The closing evidence gate asks whether one problem and use case are clear enough to productize.
Proof required at the gate
The decision needs evidence of repeated demand, a narrow buyer and use case, understandable delivery economics, usable proof, and the rights required to reuse what the work has produced.
See the Business as It Is
Tracker task: Document the current revenue mix by consulting, product, and recurring revenue.
Document the current mix of service, product, and recurring revenue before deciding what should change.
Find the Segments That Produce Value
Tracker task: Segment past projects by industry, buyer, ACV, margin, effort, and outcome.
Use past work to identify combinations of buyer, problem, price, margin, effort, and outcome that are worth repeating.
Identify the Pain Customers Already Pay to Remove
Tracker task: Identify the repeated pain customers already pay you to solve.
Find the recurring problem supported by actual customer and project evidence.
Map How Sales Actually Happens
Tracker task: Map the current founder-led/referral sales process from lead source to close.
Make the founder-led and referral-driven sales process visible from source through handoff.
Make Revenue Attribution Visible
Tracker task: Create a source-of-revenue and source-of-lead attribution log.
Create enough attribution discipline to know which sources and channels produce opportunities.
Find the Buyer, the Trigger, and the Urgency
Tracker task: Interview best-fit clients and lost prospects to isolate the buyer, urgency, and trigger event.
Use interviews and deal history to understand who acts, what changes, and why the problem becomes urgent.
Understand Delivery Economics and Expert Dependence
Tracker task: Calculate delivery effort, expert dependency, and profitability by engagement type.
Measure the effort, bottlenecks, margins, and specialist involvement behind each engagement type.
Choose the First Customer and Use Case
Tracker task: Choose the narrow initial ICP and use case for the transition.
Select a narrow initial customer profile and repeated use case rather than trying to productize everything.
Inventory the Assets You Already Built
Tracker task: Inventory reusable assets from consulting delivery.
Identify the templates, workflows, scripts, data, intellectual property, and reusable components hidden inside delivery.
Turn Past Outcomes into Proof
Tracker task: Build an initial proof library from consulting outcomes.
Build a proof library from real results, evidence, and before-and-after narratives.
Form the First Channel Hypotheses
Tracker task: Define the first sales-channel hypotheses to test.
Define plausible acquisition paths and the evidence that would support or reject them.
Set Transition Targets That Change Behavior
Tracker task: Set transition targets for non-services revenue, sales volume, and founder dependency.
Define targets for revenue mix, volume, delivery leverage, and founder dependence.
Secure the Rights Needed to Productize
Tracker task: Review service contracts for reusable IP, data rights, and productization limits.
Review intellectual property, data rights, contracts, and operational constraints before reusing service-created assets.
Decide What to Stop, Continue, and Convert
Tracker task: Decide which consulting offers to stop, continue, or convert.
Rationalize the existing offer portfolio so the company can concentrate on the selected transition.
Gate One: Is There a Repeatable Wedge?
Tracker task: Run the Stage 1 gate review.
Review the evidence and decide whether one problem and use case are sufficiently clear to productize.