Growth Diagnostics

A speculative memo about AI’s economic impact is making the rounds. It imagines a world where machine intelligence reshapes entire industries by 2028. Whether the timeline is right or not, one thing is already happening: AI is deciding which companies your buyers see. And most B2B companies have no idea where they stand.

Most B2B teams don’t overspend on tactics, they overspend on guessing.

Like a physical for your go-to-market, a growth diagnostic pressure-tests the foundations (ICP, differentiation, handoffs, leadership assumptions) before you scale hires, agencies, or campaigns.

Here’s more detail on what it actually looks at, what it prevents, and why it’s usually a lot cheaper than your next mistake.

We love evidence that we’re right, and that’s the problem. Confirmation bias pushes teams to validate assumptions instead of trying to disprove them.

From Wason’s card test to John Snow’s cholera work, the lesson is the same: earn conviction by challenging your thesis, not defending it.

Buyer personas often become wall posters — stock photos and stereotypes with no impact.

The fix isn’t better bios. It’s a shift in objective: map how the buyer decides. What triggers a search, what proof convinces them, what objections stall them, and what tradeoffs they’ll accept under pressure.

Teams often launch with optimism and vague goals — then wonder why results don’t follow.

This post introduces a simple but powerful planning question: What needs to be true? When success is defined clearly in advance, alignment improves, effort sharpens, and outcomes stop being accidental.

Most plans assume success and hope grit will handle the rest. This post introduces a better approach: imagining failure before it happens.

By using pre-mortems instead of post-mortems, leaders uncover weak assumptions early, and dramatically improve the odds of real success.

We’re taught that certainty equals competence, but that belief quietly kills curiosity.

This post explores why admitting “I don’t know” isn’t weakness, but a turning point for learning, trust, and growth, especially for leaders under pressure to always have the answer.

“We went in a different direction.” Those dreaded words that signal a lost sale. I had just spent five months guiding the prospect through our sales process. I was responsive, professional, and asked all the right “what” questions: They said all the right things. I was confident and had “committed” the deal to forecast. I

“Why did you do that?” Five words that can mean, “I’m curious” or “I’m coming for you.” We’ve all heard it. We’ve all said it. Sometimes it’s a genuine question. Sometimes it’s code for “You better have a good explanation.” “Why” is supposed to lead us to understanding. But more often than we realize, it triggers