Project Overview: Assess Your Foundation Alignment

You've now defined your first four foundations: Market, Product, Brand, and Model. This project will guide you through a systematic assessment of how well your foundations work together. You'll examine five critical pairings, identify potential misalignments, and determine your highest-priority adjustments.

This isn't about achieving perfect alignment. It's about identifying the biggest risks and most impactful improvements you can make before defining your fifth foundation: Channel. We'll leave Channel out for now; you'll define it next, using the seams you surface here.

How This Assessment Works

Capture your answers in Master Strategy Project → Foundational Five: Alignment Check.

Reminder: Evidence (user feedback, analytics, etc.) over opinion where possible.

For each pairing, you'll:

1. Review the key alignment questions for that specific fit
2. Assess your current alignment honestly
3. Identify the biggest risk if this misalignment continues
4. Note your first adjustment to improve the fit

The goal is honest signal, not perfection. We're looking for the most critical misalignments that could undermine your growth foundation.

Part 1: Market Pairings

Let's start with your Market foundation and how it aligns with your other foundations.

Market ↔ Product Alignment

Key Alignment Questions To Consider:

• Specific Segment ↔ Job-to-be-Done: Is your product's JTBD truly aligned with your specific market segment?
• Core Problem ↔ Product Solution: Does the product solve the market's core problem in the market's words?
• Motivations ↔ Outcomes/Value Created: Does your product actually produce the outcomes that would enable your market to achieve their core motivations?
• Core Problem ↔ Natural Usage Frequency: Does the product's expected usage expectancy align with realistic behavior for the market's core problem?
• Buyer vs User ↔ Time-to-First-Value & Ease of Understanding: Is the product designed for who will actually be using it, not just the one paying for it?

Assessment Questions:

• Strongest Alignment: Where in your Market ↔ Product alignment do you feel you have the strongest alignment?
• Biggest Gap: Where in your Market ↔ Product alignment do you feel you have the biggest gap?
• Biggest Risk: If this gap persists, what is the most probable negative consequence on the rest of your foundation?
• First Adjustment: What single, concrete change would most directly address this gap?

Your Notes:

• Strongest alignment: ________________________________
• Biggest gap: ________________________________
• Biggest risk: ________________________________
• First adjustment: ________________________________

Market ↔ Brand Alignment

Key Alignment Questions To Consider:

• Specific Segment ↔ Brand Story: Does your Brand Story reflect how your specific market segment sees itself and what it values?
• Motivations ↔ Brand Personality: Does Brand Personality evoke the emotions related to your market's core motivation?
• Core Problem ↔ Primary Promise: Does the Primary Promise mirror the market's desired outcome for their core problem?
• External Context ↔ Proof of Promise: Are your Proof of Promise assets credible within the external context your market operates in?
• Where Do They Spend Time ↔ Context of Encounter: Is how and where you expect your brand to interact with your market aligned with where your customers actually spend their time?

Assessment Questions:

• Strongest Alignment: Where in your Market ↔ Brand alignment do you feel you have the strongest alignment?
• Biggest Gap: Where in your Market ↔ Brand alignment do you feel you have the biggest gap?
• Biggest Risk: If this gap persists, what is the most probable negative consequence on the rest of your foundation?
• First Adjustment: What single, concrete change would most directly address this gap?

Your Notes:

• Strongest alignment: ________________________________
• Biggest gap: ________________________________
• Biggest risk: ________________________________
• First adjustment: ________________________________

Market ↔ Model Alignment

Key Alignment Questions To Consider:

• Willingness-to-Pay ↔ How Much Do You Charge: Is your price point aligned with the realistic WTP of your market?
• Market Size ↔ How Much You Charge: Is your price point and market size aligned towards your top-level financial goal?
• Problem/Solution Aware ↔ How You Charge: Is your pricing structure (free trial + subscription, upfront payment, freemium, etc.) aligned with where your market is at in the awareness stage?
• Core Problem ↔ What Do You Charge For: Does what you charge for map to the core problem and value expectation of your market?

Assessment Questions:

• Strongest Alignment: Where in your Market ↔ Model alignment do you feel you have the strongest alignment?
• Biggest Gap: Where in your Market ↔ Model alignment do you feel you have the biggest gap?
• Biggest Risk: If this gap persists, what is the most probable negative consequence on the rest of your foundation?
• First Adjustment: What single, concrete change would most directly address this gap?

Your Notes:

• Strongest alignment: ________________________________
• Biggest gap: ________________________________
• Biggest risk: ________________________________
• First adjustment: ________________________________

Part 2: Product Pairings

Now let's examine how your Product foundation aligns with your Brand and Model foundations.

Product ↔ Brand Alignment

Key Alignment Questions To Consider:

• Brand Personality ↔ Product Experience: Does the product experience feel like the stated Brand Personality throughout core flows and interactions?
• Brand Story ↔ Job-to-be-Done: Do the product's job-to-be-done and interface copy express the Brand Story, not just the marketing site?
• Primary Promise ↔ Time-to-First-Value: Do features and TTFV deliver the Primary Promise (not aspirational only)?
• Proof of Promise ↔ Outcomes/Value Created: Are Proof of Promise cues visible inside the product where users experience the value?
• Brand Risks & Guardrails ↔ Natural Usage Frequency: Do product usage patterns and prompts honor brand guardrails?

Assessment Questions:

• Strongest Alignment: Where in your Product ↔ Brand alignment do you feel you have the strongest alignment?
• Biggest Gap: Where in your Product ↔ Brand alignment do you feel you have the biggest gap?
• Biggest Risk: If this gap persists, what is the most probable negative consequence on the rest of your foundation?
• First Adjustment: What single, concrete change would most directly address this gap?

Your Notes:

• Strongest alignment: ________________________________
• Biggest gap: ________________________________
• Biggest risk: ________________________________
• First adjustment: ________________________________

Product ↔ Model Alignment

Key Alignment Questions To Consider:

• Value Proposition ↔ How Much Do You Charge: Does your delivered value justify the price point for typical users?
• Natural Usage Frequency ↔ What Do You Charge For: Does natural usage align with how you charge (seat, usage, outcome)?
• Core Capabilities ↔ Gross Margin Requirements: Do the product's core capabilities support target gross margins without unsustainable operational costs?
• Network Effects ↔ Expansion Levers: Do the product's network effects and usage patterns support the model's revenue growth levers?
• Time-to-First-Value ↔ Pricing Policies: Do activation and stickiness patterns support the payback periods your pricing policies require?

Assessment Questions:

• Strongest Alignment: Where in your Product ↔ Model alignment do you feel you have the strongest alignment?
• Biggest Gap: Where in your Product ↔ Model alignment do you feel you have the biggest gap?
• Biggest Risk: If this gap persists, what is the most probable negative consequence on the rest of your foundation?
• First Adjustment: What single, concrete change would most directly address this gap?

Your Notes:

• Strongest alignment: ________________________________
• Biggest gap: ________________________________
• Biggest risk: ________________________________
• First adjustment: ________________________________

Part 3: Priority Assessment & Next Steps

Your Top 3 Misalignment Risks

Review all your "Biggest Risk" notes above. Which three misalignments pose the greatest threat to your growth potential?

1. Highest Priority Risk: ________________________________
2. Second Priority Risk: ________________________________
3. Third Priority Risk: ________________________________

What's Next: Growth Catalysts

You've now assessed both your individual foundations and their alignment with each other. This gives you a clear picture of your foundational strengths and the most critical areas for improvement.

Shortly, we're going to dive into Part Four of the Program where you'll identify and build your Channel foundation.

Before we do that, we need to explore the final component of your Growth Foundation: Catalysts.