Founder research
Validate a startup idea with cases and customer evidence
Use business cases to identify risky assumptions, then design customer research and a small test that can challenge your startup idea.
Read the guide and worksheet ↗CASESTUDIES / THE BLOG
Turn cases into your next move
Practical case-research guides and worksheets for founders, product and strategy teams, and marketers.
Validating an idea, preparing a brief or reviewing a decision? Start with a specific task. Each guide includes a usable worksheet and a route into the archives for evidence and counterexamples.
Continue your research in the app ↗Founder research
Methods, worksheets and cases to examine
Founder research
How to compare business models without copying the surface
Compare who pays, what creates value and what must remain true before adapting another company’s business model.
Read the guide and worksheet ↗Founder research
How to research marketplace liquidity before expanding supply
A marketplace worksheet for matching demand and supply within the same place, time and customer need.
Read the guide and worksheet ↗Founder research
How to evaluate a new distribution channel with case evidence
Compare channel access, customer ownership and operating costs before committing to a new route to market.
Read the guide and worksheet ↗Founder research
How to research a startup pivot before changing direction
Separate a change in customer, problem, offer or distribution, and test what the existing business can carry forward.
Read the guide and worksheet ↗Founder research
How to build a business assumption map before researching cases
Identify the uncertain conditions that could invalidate a plan, then choose evidence and tests that address them.
Read the guide and worksheet ↗Product and strategy
Methods, worksheets and cases to examine
Product and strategy
A competitor research brief that helps you choose a next move
Build a useful competitor brief around customer choices, evidence and trade-offs instead of a long feature checklist.
Read the guide and worksheet ↗Product experiments
What to research before changing your price
Use pricing cases to compare mechanisms, check contribution economics and design a limited test with clear guardrails.
Read the guide and worksheet ↗Product and strategy
How to write a decision memo supported by case research
A concise memo structure that connects the decision, alternatives, evidence, uncertainty and a reviewable next step.
Read the guide and worksheet ↗Product and strategy
Product adoption versus retention: how to research the difference
Define first value, repeat value and comparable cohorts before borrowing a product-growth lesson from a case.
Read the guide and worksheet ↗Product and strategy
Bundling or unbundling: a case-research guide for product teams
Compare customer tasks, purchasing overlap and delivery costs before combining products or selling features separately.
Read the guide and worksheet ↗Product and strategy
From service to software: what to research before productizing
Find a repeatable customer outcome, expose hidden expert work and test independent use before automating a service.
Read the guide and worksheet ↗Product and strategy
How to use case research in product prioritization
Compare the customer problem, expected mechanism and uncertainty of competing product ideas without inventing precise scores.
Read the guide and worksheet ↗Product and strategy
How to research international expansion beyond market size
Build an evidence checklist for customer behavior, distribution, local delivery and operational constraints in a new market.
Read the guide and worksheet ↗Marketing research
Methods, worksheets and cases to examine
Marketing research
How to analyze a marketing campaign without copying the surface
Separate the audience problem, creative mechanism, distribution and measurement before borrowing an idea from a campaign case.
Read the guide and worksheet ↗Marketing research
How to build a creative brief from case evidence
Translate campaign references into a clear audience problem, communication task and creative constraint.
Read the guide and worksheet ↗Marketing research
Campaign reach versus business impact: how to read the evidence
Separate exposure, audience response and business outcomes when evaluating a campaign case or your own post-campaign report.
Read the guide and worksheet ↗Marketing research
How to research a brand repositioning beyond a visual redesign
Compare the intended audience, value proposition, delivery changes and evidence of customer understanding in repositioning cases.
Read the guide and worksheet ↗Marketing research
How to use counterexamples to strengthen a strategy pitch
Find credible cases that challenge your recommendation, then use them to clarify boundaries and improve the proposed action.
Read the guide and worksheet ↗Marketing research
How to research customer segments by tasks and constraints
Build actionable segment hypotheses from customer situations, buying behavior and delivery needs instead of decorative personas.
Read the guide and worksheet ↗Marketing research
How to run a launch postmortem that changes the next launch
Reconstruct the launch timeline, distinguish execution from assumptions and turn findings into owned actions.
Read the guide and worksheet ↗Research practice
Methods, worksheets and cases to examine
Decision research
How to analyze a business case before making a decision
A practical case-analysis worksheet: separate facts from explanations, compare alternatives and turn an interesting story into a testable decision.
Read the guide and worksheet ↗Research practice
How to research business cases with AI and check the sources
A source-checking workflow for AI-assisted case research: frame the question, inspect citations, find counterexamples and keep a decision trail.
Read the guide and worksheet ↗Research practice
How to keep a source and claim ledger for business research
A practical record linking each important claim to its exact source, date, scope and remaining uncertainty.
Read the guide and worksheet ↗Research practice
What to do when similar business cases have opposite outcomes
Compare definitions, timing and conditions before deciding that one case disproves another.
Read the guide and worksheet ↗Research practice
How to run a team case discussion that ends in a useful decision
A facilitation structure for separating evidence, interpretation and action without turning a case meeting into opinion swapping.
Read the guide and worksheet ↗Research practice
How to update a decision when new evidence arrives
Review the assumption that changed, distinguish signal from noise and record whether to continue, adapt or reverse.
Read the guide and worksheet ↗Research practice
How to search for business cases beyond famous company names
Build searches around a customer problem, business action and outcome, then use the five archives to find useful comparisons.
Read the guide and worksheet ↗Research practice
How to reduce survivorship bias in business case research
Inspect how examples entered your sample and compare setbacks, withdrawals and incomplete attempts alongside successes.
Read the guide and worksheet ↗Research practice
How to plan a focused business case research project
Set the decision, evidence standard, search scope and stopping rule before collecting a large pile of cases.
Read the guide and worksheet ↗