Situation two
Nobody wants it, understands it, or sticks with it, and I can't tell which.
This is the whole retention axis, not just launch. Acquisition, activation, churn, upgrade, renewal. The symptom is different at each end and the diagnosis is the same question: is it the thing, or is it how the thing is being met?
In your words
Is this you?
“The part I wasn't ready for is that nobody rejected it. I'd braced for “this is bad” or “this already exists.” Instead there's just silence.”
“They explore. They run things. They burn through the free usage. And then they just… disappear.”
“We demo the product. People go “oh wow, that's really cool.” Then nothing. Ghosted. Every single time.”
“How do you tell the difference between *nobody knows I exist* and *nobody wants what I built*?”
“For six months I genuinely believed if we just got better at support, retention would follow. I kept solving the wrong thing.”
The diagnosis
What's usually going on
Four things get confused for each other constantly, and the fix for each one kills the others if you apply it wrong:
- Nobody knows. Distribution. The product is fine and invisible.
- Nobody understands. Positioning. They know it exists and can't tell what it replaces.
- Nobody stays. Activation or fit. They got in, didn't reach the thing that makes it worth keeping, and left quietly.
- Nobody expands. The product ends before the customer does.
You cannot A/B your way out of picking the wrong one of these. Most of the money wasted in this situation is spent executing beautifully against the wrong diagnosis.
Never confuse activity with effort, and never mistake effort for results.
Scope
What this is not
- Not a growth retainer. Four weeks, then it ends.
- Not execution. I don't run your ads and I don't write your onboarding emails.
- Not a research report you file. If the finding is that the product is wrong, the deliverable says the product is wrong.
How to buy it
Two ways in
Same situation, two depths. The first reads what you already have. The second goes and asks people who are not you. Start where the honest answer is.
lead option
The Walkthrough
$8,0004 weeks
What happens
Week 1
The long look
Two three-hour blocks. Product, funnel, pricing, the words on the page, the last ninety days of behavior.
Week 2
The four-way split
Which of the four it actually is, with the evidence that rules the other three out.
Week 3
The changes
What to change, in order, with what each is supposed to move.
Week 4
The walk
We walk it together, end to end, and you take the controls.
What I need from you
Analytics access, the billing data, and the last ten support conversations you would rather I didn't read.
What you get
What you get, every time, in three parts:
- Everything you need to understand it.
- The models and the methods to see it through without me.
- The other routes, and why they aren't taken, shouldn't be taken, or can't be taken yet.
The Landing
The Landing. Thirty days after we finish, we talk for an hour. At sixty days, thirty minutes. At ninety, thirty minutes. Three dates, booked before we start, inside the price. Then it is over.
This is the landing, not the residency. It exists because the month after an engagement ends is when the thing either takes or doesn't, and that is the worst possible moment for me to be unreachable and the worst possible moment to be selling you something.
The price
Front-loaded, and the Landing is included. Half at signature, half on delivery.
full engagement
Product Opportunity Results
$12,000~1 month · 6–10 interviews · the Landing included
What happens
Six to ten real conversations with people who are not you and are not being polite to you, customers, churned customers, and people who looked and didn't buy. Then the read.
Week 1
Frame and recruit
What we need to learn, who can tell us, and how to get them on a call.
Weeks 2–3
The interviews
Run and recorded. You may listen; you may not sit in.
Week 4
The read
What they said, what it means, what it costs you to keep believing otherwise.
Who does it
Annie Ellegood runs this. She is the delivery, not support. All PM and PMM work in the catalog is hers.
What you get
What you get, every time, in three parts:
- Everything you need to understand it.
- The models and the methods to see it through without me.
- The other routes, and why they aren't taken, shouldn't be taken, or can't be taken yet.
The Landing
The Landing. Thirty days after we finish, we talk for an hour. At sixty days, thirty minutes. At ninety, thirty minutes. Three dates, booked before we start, inside the price. Then it is over.
This is the landing, not the residency. It exists because the month after an engagement ends is when the thing either takes or doesn't, and that is the worst possible moment for me to be unreachable and the worst possible moment to be selling you something.
If you're not sure which of these you need
Readiness, $1,000, credits against whichever you buy. Two outputs: Do, or Do not do, because….
Who's in the room
Me on the Walkthrough. Annie Ellegood on Product Opportunity, she is the delivery, not an assistant on it.
Peter on this page
(coming)
On camera
“Nobody is rejecting it. They are just not staying. Those are two different problems with two different fixes, and most people guess which one they have.”
Start with a call.
Up to ninety minutes on one real problem, and you set the length. If it was worth something, pay what it was worth. If it was not, we shake hands and you owe me nothing.